Ban 'premature'
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THE FREIGHT Transport Association has objected to a proposed area lorry ban in North East London and South Essex that would create serious problems for local trade and industry.
FTA traffic officer Don McIntyre told CM that the Council should wait until the A10/Al2 section of the M25 had been completed before thinking about bans. "If lorries are banned from this area before the M25 gets underway, no-one will really know what effect the motorway would have had," he said. ban will take traffic out of the area, but the M25 would have the same effect," he added.
"This situation is very similar to the Enfield and Barnet area bans in North London," he said. There, the ban was shelved when neighbouring counties complained of the extra traffic that would have been pushed on to their roads.
Furthermore, Essex County Council has not calculated the costs to operators passing through the area, he said. Local firms with their first drops just outside the zone would face lengthy diversions. Increased traffic congestion on the alternative routes would add to this problem.
A spokesman for Essex County Council told CM that the ban would not be introduced until 1984 when the M25 was completed. "We first looked at the idea in July 1982 and had talks with the Greater London Council and other London Boroughs," she said.
The Council has had many letters on the subject, with an operator from as far afield as Northern Ireland pointing out the problem of such a ban.
Essex County Council will be reporting to its highways committee at a later date to discuss the future of the ban and will be putting its final views before the GLC around May.
A GLC spokesman said: "I cannot see any real grounds for us objecting. The Council came before us with the plans some time ago and we made a few suggestions to the scheme," he said.
"The GLC is very much in favour of lorry bans," he added.