Trim-down coming for traffic areas
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iDICAL proposals to reduce the number of traffic areas and save tween £120,000 and £150,000 a year have been announced by the ipartment of Transport.
DTp review team has recomonded that the number of ensing Authorities and traffic ;as can be cut from the pre-it 11 to seven, but is prepared accept an initial reduction to Iht, with a separate traffic area ing retained to cover all of ales.
rhe team believes that the reced burden of work which folved the deregulation of the s industry in 1980, and the tes of faith in operator wising given by both the Fosand Armitage Reports, no icier justifies the retention of 'total of 11 chairmen.
ndeed, the retirement of the st Midland LA and the death his Northern counterpart have eady reduced the compleint to nine, and the DTp esees no difficulty even when vironmental factors are added 0-licence applications later S year.
rhe existing traffic area offices II be kept open for at least other three years, so that lerators are put to the nimum inconvenience by the 3nges, but it is unavoidable it some operators will deal Eh different offices.
rhe draft proposals call for the mition of a North Eastern trafarea from the Northern area ccept Cumbria), South Humrside and Derbyshire.
The North Western area would le North Wales, but gain Cumía and small parts of the irlcshire area where the bound? is realigned along county rders.
A new Eastern area would be pelted from the East Midland aa (except for South Humberle and part of Oxfordshire), 3 existing Eastern area, part of irbyshire, and the parts of utfordshire, Bedfordshire, ickinghamshire, and Essex tich at present are in the atropolitan area.
The Western area would be panded to gain Oxfordshire, irkshire, Hampshire, the Isle of ight, and part of Dorset. The nips of the Metropolitan and luth-Eastern areas would be mbined into one traffic area. North and South Wales would become one traffic area, and would share an LA with the West Midlands area which, like Scotland, would remain unchanged.
The DTp plans to begin this reorganisation in April next year, but is prepared to modify its plans in the light of any industry comments. In particular, it is prepared to include all of Derbyshire in the North Western area, South Humberside and Buckinghamshire in Eastern area, and to divide Hertfordshire and Essex along the Metropolitan Police boundary.
Existing licences held by operators and drivers would remain valid after boundary changes, although any modifications to licences would have to be processed through the new LA for an area where the boundary is moved. The Freight Transport Association and Road Haulage Association expect to make detailed comments on the proposals at a later date, but both indicated last week that they saw little to fear from the changes. An FTA spokesman did indicate that the Transport Bill environmental proposals were an unknown quantity Which ought to betaken into account.