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Council backs compensation for Shropshire beet hauliers
Page 10
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A local authority is hoping to help
hauliers affected by the closure of British Sugar's Allscott factory.
David Harris reports.
SH ROPSHIRE COUNTY Counci l supports compensation for local hauliers in the wake of British Sugar's decision to close two sugar beet factories, one at Allseott, Shropshire, and one in Yorkshire (CM 13 July).
The closure of the Shropshire plant is being examined by the A llscott Task Group, chaired by Malcolm Brown, head of the council's economic development unit.
Brown says one of the roles of this group will be to talk to British Sugar about compensation, although he warns that to date the company has refused to speak to anyone except the National Farmers Union (NFU).
"So far [British Sugar] is only prepared to talk about job losses at the factory, whereas we're concerned about the effect on the local economy," says Brown.
One of the problems for hauliers is that their contracts for carrying the sugar beet are with the growers, not with British Sugar.
Derek Marston, owner of Shropshire-based Derek Marston & Son, has been carrying sugar beet for 38 years and until now has been working for 13 growers. He says he has resigned himself to losing the work:' If we were employed by British Sugar it would he a different ballgame."
Suggestions that future sugar beet loads might go to the British Sugar factory at Newark, Notts, would not necessarily help as hauling sugar beet so far would almost certainly be uneconomical.
Other growers from Shropshire will be offered contracts with British Sugar's plant in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Yorkshire growers more than 60 miles from Newark will be offered contracts with British Sugar's Wissington, Suffolk factory.
Marston reports: "The growers will get £17 a tonne for the sugar beet next year:11.8 if they are lucky —and I'd need il0 a tonne to take it to Newark. Plus it will he difficult to get return loads."
It is widely expected that many of the sugar beet growers will switch to oilseed rape; the figure could he as high as 90 %,according to Brown. But hauliers in both Shropshire and Yorkshire are arguing that they should receive some compensation—and not just for the lost work.
Johnathan Bulmer, of Bulmers Logistics, says: "One of the big issues is with hauliers who have invested in special hauling and cleaning equipment to do the work. It seems very unfair to ask them to make that investment and then withdraw the work."
• Contact the Allscott Task Group via Malcolm Brown at Shropshire County Council, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, SY2 6ND.