New weight, no test
Page 5
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MANY HEAVY lorries will be given altered approval certificates and replated without being examined once the Government has amended the Construction and Use regulations to allow heavier lorries on the roads.
Transport Under Secretary Lynda Chalker told MPs last week during the final stages of the Transport Bill (now the 1982 Act) that the Government saw -no point in duplicating work that had already been done when the Department of Transport had al
ready decided what the design weight of a lorry should be.
She rejected Labour demands 't • that the amendment for the approval certificate could only be done by the Secretary of State without an examination when the maximum weight was being "reduced.
The proposals in the Transport Bill had been drafted to give the Secretary of State flexibility in circumstances when a vehicle had been altered, but where the operator wanted to take advantage of a change in the law in relation to plated weights.
"If in future Parliament should decide that higher weights are acceptable," regulations made under the clause will allow suitable vehicles with higher design weights to take advantage of such a decision.
But she promised that if any safety considerations were involved, then an examination would have to take place before • the certificate would be amended. That included things like the addition of an axle with alteration to the braking system.