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• "Hauliers are being treated as second-class citizens — people don't want us on their sites," complains Peter Edge, boss of Edge Transport, Chester. "We are seen as grubby little operations — some may be, but we definitely are not," he insists.
Edge is faced with a likely lorry ban from Liberal Democrat-controlled Chester City Council. Ward councillor Gordon Smith claimed he had received numerous complaints from residents who were disturbed by lorries during the summer when many slept with windows open.
Smith wants lorries banned from Edge's depot between 20.00 and 08.00hrs.
But Edge, who runs 14 vehicles, has hit back — accusing Councillor Smith and other councillors of failing to turn up at a planning meeting more than two years ago where he hoped to get permission for an alternative site.
Edge is keen to move but says he has been turned down by Deeside Industrial Estate, which will not allow hauliers in, and refused help by the Welsh Development Agency, He operates from Hoole Lane, an offshoot of Hoole Road the main road into Chester which is often badly congested. Many drivers use Hoole Lane as a shortcut to avoid the jams — and Edge believes his business has been singled out unfairly.
The effect of a lorry ban would be disastrous. "If it went ahead I couldn't operate because everybody wants their goods delivered yesterday. Early starts would be a problem and there is no lorry park anywhere in Chester that I could use," he maintains. gone and the ones left have got smaller. The docks have just been carved up."
This is how John Page of Harline Transport sums up the recent history of haulage in Southampton. And now his firm is one of three large dockland operators faced with circumventing a proposed lorry ban.
Although temporarily deferred, the ban is intended to restrict vehicles above 7-5 tonnes from moving within the city centre between 23.00hrs and 07.00hrs.
LTS Freight also would be seriously inconvenienced. Neil Rivers explains: "Our lorries go out east through Southampton to Portsmouth Harbour where all our trailers enter and leave the country. We do at least four trips a day.
"With the ban we would have to go west and round the outskirts of the town, meaning extra operating costs, both in fuel and drivers' wages."
• "Some lorry bans are weird," says Bill Lovelock, transport , manager of Bildor Transport, Bletchley.
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.410, "Take Manchester for example — you can't deliver before 09.00hrs and by then all the
office staff have come in and parked their cars." But Lovelock does not fall into the NIMBY category — Not In My Back Yard. He is all in favour of the local lorry ban which covers the Woburn area and restricts access for vehicles above 7.5 tonnes at all times.
"I'm against bans that are unnecessary. but I back this ban," he says, "there's no need to go through Woburn unless you're delivering."
He also criticises drivers taking shortcuts through villages when they could go by trunk road or motorway.
He points to Woburn being a heritage town and the damage caused to the foundations of old buildings by heavy lorries rattling through.
"I'd say half the fault is the drivers, half is narrow-minded councils, but certain drivers are cutting their own throats taking big lorries through nice areas. We're all guilty of it," he reckons. "I don't want a 40-footer moving through Woburn. After all, I might be able to afford a place of my own there one day."
However, the Road Haulage Association, South Eastern District, has opposed the ban — saying Bedfordshire County Council's explanation for imposing it is vague and exemptions for delivery vehicles pose a tough job for the police in deciding who to stop. The RHA is also concerned about the effect it will have on tipper operators.
DI by Patric Cunnane