POLICE LAUNCH LONDON SAFETY DRIVE
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" TRAFFIC control and accident pre vention should be regarded as of importance equal to that of criminal investigation," says Mr. Henry Dalton, C.B.E., Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Traffic Department of the Metropolitan Police, in a memorandum issued last week. The police are staging a new safety drive in London.
Radio telephones are to be fitted to 32 traffic patrol cars, as soon as equipment is available, and experiments are being made with radio-telephonic communication with patrol motorcyclists.
. In addition, traffic and accident groups will be used primarily to answer calls for assistance at centres of traffic congestion and to deal with serious accidents. When not responding to urgent calls, they will operate as safety squads at important road junctions and other danger spots.
Mr. Dalton includes the following among matters calling for special attention by the police:— Parking in dangerous positions, obstruction, infringement of No Waiting" orders, traffic-light "jumping," hand signalling by drivers and inconsiderate motoring. Cyclists and pedestrians are also to be educated in the ways of safety. The practice of boarding and alighting from moving vehicles is to be checked.
The police are charged with the responsibility of showing the public that they wish to help, not harass.
NO INCREASE IN PETROL TAX
FEARS that the petrol tax would lac increased to compensate for the reduction in taxation on private cars prove to have been needless. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, last week, that such an increase would affect the cost of commercial transport and raise bus fares. "In my view," he said, "it is not in that direction that we should be moving. We do not want to raise any further, through the agency of taxation, the cost of transport— indeed, quite the reverse."
The new tax on private cars is a sum of 10 per year, irrespective of horsepower. It will come into effect on January 1, 1948, and cars first licensed in 1947 and now taxed on cubic capacity will go over to the new system next year. This point is not generally understood. Cars registered before 1947 and taxed on horse-power will continue to be taxed in this manner with no change next year.
The Chancellor's announcement has been welcomed by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
SALE YIELDS £308,790
A TOTAL of 1308,700 for 2,017 tAvehicles, an average of £153 each, was realized at the third auction of Government vehicles at Byram Park, near Pontefract, which concluded on June 20. This total representsan increase of about 33 per cent. on the average price paid at the previous sale in February.
Messrs. Hollis and Webb, 3, Park Place, Leeds, I, were the auctioneers.