Weights Amendments T "Peers who want coal lorries to carry weighing
Page 13
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
scales have still not had their way. An amendment to the Weights and Measures Bill, which would have given local authorities power to make by-laws insisting that scales were carried, was withdrawn last week in face of Government opposition.
The amendment had been moved by Lord Stonham, who said that if these scales were carried on lorries carrying coal for sale or delivery to a purchaser, it would be a deterrent to those who got up to knavery. Asking for the amendment to be withdrawn, Lord Derwent, Minister of State at the Board of Trade, said that the only other trader who had to carry scales was one selling bread, and this provision was not to be repeated in the Bill. Similarly, they did not want to repeat the requirement for a vehicle carrying coal. The weight of these scales amounted to something like 2 cwt.. and lorries loaded to full capacity would be overloaded 'unless they took off two sacks, he said.
He did not think it was much of a burden for an inspector to have to carry the scales in his car, added Lord Derwent.
The House accepted Government amendments stating that hawkers should also be covered by the rule that solid fuel can be carried in li-ewt. containers
only when all the sacks on the vehicle are made up in that quantity.
The Government, however, resisted another amendment stating that coal for retail delivery should go out already weighed up into containers. The Bill was approved by the Lords this week and now returns to the Commons before receiving the Royal Assent.
Undecided on Motorway Tolls
THE Government has still not decided 1 whether tolls should be charged on motorways built after the five major ones, or their early extensions.
Stating this last week, Lord Chesham, joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, said the policy of charging tolls on large and expensive bridges and tunnels still applied.
Lord St. Just asked whether the Government was satisfied with the progress of new motorways, and was told that it was consistent with the aim of 1,000 miles by the early 1970s.
Driving Offences THREE of the driving offences included 1 in the "totting up" method of disqualification came under fire in the Commons last week—failing to stop at a "halt" sign, crossing a double white line and disobeying a contractor's traffic light. The attack was led by Mr. Ronald Bell (Tory, Buckinghamshire South), who asked that the Regulations dealing with these three offences should be annulled— a request which he later withdrew. All