)rawbarrestrictions in '38' package?
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IE AMENDED Construction and Use Regulations authorising 38me lorries will give the industry even less than the wateredwn White Paper proposals first unveiled last December, but they ould be announced next week, writes the news editor.
7,onservative sources have d CM that the Cabinet is cornRed to pressing ahead with increased gross weights asures, as emerged after the ty conference in Brighton this )nth, but it is resigned to a Ich slimmer package.
Its has long been accepted, 34 40-tonne lorries are out of picture, and there will be asures included to prevent )rators from making greater of drawbar vehicles.
his follows widely expressed rs that "Continental looking" wbar vehicles would become re popular after gross weight its go up, even though the ustry insists they are, in fact, re manoeuvrable than artic;ed units.
iord from Westminster this :k was that an announcement weights will be made next dnesday when Transport rotary David Howell answers 'sport questions in the Corn-is.
he Prime Minister is anxious the matter should be dealt and forgotten before the [General Election.
let means that only drafting culties will prevent the Reguins from being laid before state opening of Parliament November 3, hence the opunity next week.
why the mystery of the sing paragraph from Mr speech at Brighton? arently, it was no mistake, a carefully calculated leak to ;fy the industry that some was being done (notably n Mr Howell spoke at CM's t Management Conference Under Secretary Lynda Iker addressed the Road lege Association), without 'king Parliamentary protocol such controversial anlcements should first be made at Westminster.
Protesting MPs have been told by Conservative Central Office that the wrong paragraph was deleted from the advance text of Mr Howell's speech, even although no such "mistake" actually occurred.
The omission has fooled some, and the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry has expressed its disappointment at the dropping of the statement, saying: "The further delay in announcing the new 40 tonne limit is particularly disheartening."
Freight Transport Association president Ian Dallison this week added to the pressure on Mr Howell to act quickly and increase gross weights. When speaking to East Riding members in Hull on Wednesday, he said Mr Howell should act now in the interests of the industry and the environment.
And last week Mr Howell told North Kent employers: "There is wide support for all elements of our package, both in the community at large and in industry."