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The Position of the L.G.B. Committee and of Road Authorities.

8th July 1915, Page 1
8th July 1915
Page 1
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Page 1, 8th July 1915 — The Position of the L.G.B. Committee and of Road Authorities.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

An appeal, almost in forma pan pens, Was made at the National Road Conference of the County Councils Association, on Tuesday of last week, on the occasion of the reading of papers by Mr. Harcourt Clare (Clerk to the Lancashire County Council) and Mr. E. J. Elford (Borough Surveyor of Southend-on-Sea). We do not here refer to the actual contents of the papers, one of which we are able to reprint this week, but to the general trend of the discussion, to which it was our pleasure to listen. We were particularly struck by the remarks of Mr. HamptOn Copnall (Clerk to the Nottingham County Council), in the .course of which he urged that to show hostility to heavy-motor traffic was not the prOper and best course to follow: Other :speakers addressed the meeting in the •same vein, • A Previous Attempt to Agree.

There was evidence of a desire to try to come to some kind of an arrangement with heavy-traffic interests, and that, course of action is a possible one.,. It is possible, however; only if thedemands from the road-makers' side of the table are reasonable. A round-table conference did take place, several. years ago, under the chairmanship of the late Lord. 13elper, between .the important and representative societies of both sides, including on behalf of motor owners the Royal Automobile Club, the Automobile Association, the Commercial Motor Users Association, and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, with Mr. Montagu Harris, secretary of the. County Councils Association, as secretary of the Committee. The outcome was disappointing, and the reasons for the, negative results are not far to seek. The demands and ideas of the road-makers were so far divergent from anything that was feasible in a commercial sense that the representatives of the users were forced to decide to" play for time." They have, fortunately for themselves and the country, done so with success.

How Heavy Motors Saved the Nation.

We have already, in earlier articles, invited consideration for the positioiinwhich the British* Empire would have found itself, but for the fact that the War Office was able to-impress several thousand commercial motors in August last. We do not hesitate to say that, if the hostility of certain road authorities had taken due effect five or more years ago, and had been codified as an operative Act of Parliament, the Expeditionary Force, during ,the retreat from Mons, must have been annihilated. It was saved, by the commercial motors which have been, untjl recently, so uniformly anathematized by so many road authorities.

Energies Which Should Not be Absorbed.

There is an uneasy feeling in road-making circles, and one which is readily comprehensible, that the present is indeed a most-inopportune time for any fighting at home. We concur in those sentiments, especially when the fighting is likely to absorb energies which might otherwise be de'voted to a great extent to the serviees of the Crown. We have, all along, been at a loss to understand why Mr. Herbert Samuel, when he was President of the Local Government Board, allowed himself to be persuaded, in March last, to appoint this L.G.B. Committee. The time was .unfavourahle, and th,e necessity far from being the most pressing of the day. • The incongruity of the situation is evidently being more widely appreciated. It is felt .by everybody, beginning. with Mr. Walter Long, who is now at the head of affairs at the Local Government Board-, that as we reported last week, " all our energies and resources, at. the present time, must. be directed to the great national crisis, until it is disposed of in the only way Englishmen can contemplate. Meantime, all we can do is to settle how best we can get along in a temporary way.".

The "Open Mouth" of the Road Authority. A settlement by compromise and discussion has, for several years past, been prejudiced and postponed by the open-mouth policy of not a few road surveyors and road authorities. They have seared road-users by their utterances. Nothing has done more, in our opinion, to render road-users distrustful of road authorities than the action .othe. Middlesex County Council, last year, in demanding and obtaining Parliamentary Sanction to charge id. per motorbus-mile on the proposed new western high,way from Hounslow to Kew. Here we are concerned with a road, which is to be constructed as to A15 75 per cent. of its cost out of the proceeds of motor taxation, in respect of which, although it will presumably he made in modern and up-to-date fashion, an exorbitant toll is sought, and sought without shame, by an important County Council. A charge of gd. per motorbus-Mile may not be too much on a water-bound macadam road ; we know of cases in which it is too little, considered as a recoupment payment. It is, however, known to be excessive and exorbitant for a modern highway, constructed on 6 ins, of eoncrete, and surfaced with wood blocks, as the new Iiew-Hounslow highway will be—if it be constructed in accordance with the plans and cartoons which were exposed to the Parliamentary Committees when the powers were obtained. A comparable highway, that between Hammersmith Bridge and Rarielag,h, also constructed (in the year 1907) on 6 ills. of concrete and surfaced with wood blacks, has cot. less than Ad. per motorbus-mile for total sinking-fund, allowing the use of that highway free of charge to all other traffic, and remains in good order at the present time. There has been no maintenance 'outlay qua traffic. If any road surveyor or road anthority doubts these data, we refer them, with all confidence, to the surveyor to the Barnes Tf.D.C„ Mr. G. Bruce Tomes. Similarly, in Piccadilly, • Oxford Street, Regent Street., the Strand, and other London thoroughfares, which bear heavier and more-frequent motorbus traffic, a charge of id. per motorbus-mile is sufficient to pay for the maintenance of the whole highway, including foundations, even on the high basis of 10d. per superficial yard per annum,. and to give the use of those highways, free of all charge, to all the rest of the traffic. Why are road authorities seeking profits out of motorbuses ?

The'New Way the True Test. • It is because of the disparity between the costs of maintenance of , modern highways under heavymotor traffie; :Eirid those due to the rapidity of damage to :unsuitable highways by such traffic, which latter figures are almost invariably advanced by hostile road authorities, that users are nervous of having dealings with road-makers. Even the chairman of the: Lancashire County Council has stated, as we noted at the time with adverse comment, that a certain road near Barrow cost is. per motorbus-Mile, regardless(a) of the unsuitable character Of the road c.i. any method that would be adopted nOwadays, and (b) of the unexhausted expenditure which he included in the alleged Is. per motorbus-mile.'. • .

Users' Distrust Of:Local Authorities.

We may sti-ite, in _particular reference. to -Mr.. Harcourt Clare-e proposals for classification, that users will never assent to classification or a right to bar by lodal authorities, although they will undoubtedly welcome a classification by the Road Board. Restrictions by ideal authorities are con-. trary to the' national character of highways,. and any such restrictions mnst be subject to the order of a central authority. The roads of this country are as much a national undertaking as is the Navy, and we were glad to detect in the course of the discussion a measure of readiness to acknowledge that funds must be supplied largely from the National Exchequer. Relief of that kind has already been promised, to the extent of £2,400,000 per annum. It is the business of the County Councils Association and allied bodies to 'strain every nerve to obtain•that money from the Government, and not to seek to tax motor owners twice over. The proceeds of motor taxation are rapidly approaching £2,000,000 per annum, all of which has by law to be spent on road irnpsovement, to the relief of later maintenance costs. We advocate a division, hereafter, of all proceeds of motor taxation in excess of £2,000,000 per annum, as to half for" improvement " and half for " extra maintenance."

National Economy.

Owners of steam wagons and tractors are willing to fall into line with owners of petrol vehicles, subject to reasonable safeguards and concessions, but it is no more fair to expect heavy-motor traffic to bear a large share of road maintenance than it is to lay the charge for the Navy upon shipOwners and the ports. If owners of heavy motors'Pay the tax, or if conditions are so restricted that internal transport has to be conducted on less-efficient lines, the country at large will pay at least several million pounds sterling more per annum in either event— in the former by a succession of increased charges in the course of trade, as between producer and consumer; in the latter, by reason of the greater cost of doing by horse, rail, or horse-cum-rail, that which should be done with road motors.

Why Play the Railway's Game?

We are at a loss to understand why some road authorities should exhibit such " soft spots in their hearts " for the railway companies, and we can only presume that many of those who act as their spokesmen have never been traders, merchants or shippers. The canal systems of this country have been wrecked, in so far as they are effective or competitive undertakings, by the carefully-considered and concerted action of railway interests. Road authorities must not do anything more to create a .railway monopoly, if this country is to survive the intense international competition which lies ahead of it. Do they wish toredeliver the commercial man into the hands of the railways?

The Elimination of Abuse.

We sympathize with road authorities as a whole in the awkward position in, which they are placed. Many of them scar6ely deserve that sympathy, in that, despite the fact that the growth of heavy-motor traffic has been admitted to be inevitable for more than 10 years, they have, continued to repair their roads on old-fashioned lines, and .accorditiL to methods which were known to be unsuitable. This course of action has in many eases amounted to misfeasance, in our judgment. They now appeal, as we have stated in the heading of this article, practically in forma pauperig, largely because Exchequer Contributions under the Local Government Act of 1888 have been 'ewallowed up by education. They do. wrong to grumble at the cost of roads, when such increase is a national necessity, and when it has usually marched only pan: passe; with expenditure under other heads of local and semi-national expenditure, and in other cases at a lesser rate of increase. The country is in no mood to see heavy-motor traffic turned down. It is more likely to call the attention of dilatory Councils to the progress which has been achieved in particular counties, thus replacing a lew standard by a high one. The Road Board, with its expert knowledge and judicial atmosphere, has already done much to that :end. The national purse can alone make good the unique potentialities of this country's unrivalled road system, which system is more complete and extensive, in relation to the area of the country, than is the system of any other nation the world over. Why waste that great asset?

Finally, we have to point out that owners of heavy motor vehicles cannot reduce the working capacities of their machines and yet hope to hold their own against international competition. They must not be thrown back on the railway systems of the country. Many industries must die if railway delays have to be re-established in the cycle of their processes and dealings. It is the duty of users, we think, to help the authorities to get rid of abuses. The authorities have so far failed to avail themselves of the means of control which they possess under the Motor Car Act of 1903 and the Heavy Motor Gar Order of 1904, and nearly all cases of road damage will be automatically eliminated if they will only act upon those powers. The present weight and speed limits are too low, not too high, but they are not enforced, and the reasonable user is now threatened with damage and suffering because of the unpunished user who is unreasonable. The reasonable user must be classed and treated fairly.


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