Industry loses fight
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THE TRANSPORT industry's last hope of stopping the Greater London Council's night and weekend lorry ban collapsed on Tuesday when the Court of Appeal ruled against Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley.
Ridley had appealed against a High Court judgment in July that he had exceeded his powers by demanding that the GLC held a public inquiry before going ahead with its ban on December 16, stopping operators from taking vehicles over 16.5 tonnes into its area at night and weekends without a permit.
But Appeal Court judges Lord Justices Oliver, Neill and Balcombe confirmed unanimously that the High Court was right, and they have refused leave to appeal to the House of Lords.
In a .statement issued soon after the judgment was announced, the GLC's transport committee chair, Dave Wetzel, hailed the decision as a well-deserved defeat for Rid ley and the irresponsible lorry lobby who have been trying to frustrate one of the biggest environmental improvement measures ever taken in the capital".
He added: "The unrestrained growth of giant juggernaut traffic in London has to be regulated in the interests of the quality of life of everyone who lives here."
It also comes as good news for Royal British Legion Industries, the disabled ex-servicemen's workshop company, which was awarded a .1:107,0(1(1 contract to deliver the signs for the ban.
But it is had news for transport operators who clung to the hope that they could still be spared the trouble of needing permits to operate in London between 9pni and 7ani on weekdays and between 1pm Saturday and 7am Monday.
Both the Freight Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association said they were disappointed by the de cision, hut they pledged to fight on and have demanded a meeting with Ridley.
FTA planning director Richard Turner told CM that they will urge Ridley to use powers in Schedule 9 (paragraph 9) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act which, they believe, give him scope to kill the ban.
They believe he can argue successfully that the wide range of exemptions to the ban mean it will achieve nothing.
And they say he can argue that the abolition of the GL( next April will leave 33 London boroughs — not all of which support the ban — to pick up the problem.
All Ridley would say on Tuesday was: "I shall reserve comment until I have read the decision."
But there is a feeling in Whitehall that the Government has taken its fight over the ban as far as it can and that hauliers will have to learn to live with it.