FTA d gobsmacked' at Northern
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Ireland 0-licence progress
thris.tindatlfarbi.co.uk THE INTRODUCTION of a comprehensive 0-licensing system in Northern Ireland is causing conflict in the industry after the Freight Transport Association (ETA) accused the government of political inaction.
ETA head of policy for Northern Ireland Tom Wilson says he is "gobsmacked" by the lack of progress made in making the license system a reality since it received its Royal Assent in January.
The ETA says it remains unsatisfied with the absence of a -definitive roadmap to 0-licensing being published" and that momentum has been lost.
Wilson tells CM: -t have had meetings with those politicians responsible for voting it through; the answer seems to be that there are only two civil servants in the whole world dealing with this. Their argument is we don't have the resources to get this through. Our argument is there could be civil servants redeployed into getting everything drawn up."
But the Road Haulage Association (RI-IA) responded by saying it was surprised by the FTA's comments and one haulier even accuses the trade association of attempting to raise its profile in the country.
RHA regional director Phil Flanders says: "I'm a wee bit surprised. I speak to the department regularly and I understand that everything is on target. We support what the department is doing and as far as we are aware the timetable is being met."
Willie Oliver, MD at Colerainebased Oliver Transport Services, says he is also unaware of any problems: "I honestly believe that the ETA is profile raising: certainly my understanding is the process is to he rolled out over the next two years."
A transport regulation unit has been set up in Belfast specifically to implement the 0-licence Act and its head, Donald Armstrong, insists progress is being made.
"As normal with primary legislation there's roughly a two-year run-in between an Act being made and being enacted on the ground," he explains, "It was always envisaged it would bring us to 2012 and that's still the position. There's never been any talk of a delay, in fact we are trying to implement it as fast as we possibly can."