1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202 
Curb-foreign-heavies Bill for the Lords
Page 41
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• The House of Lords has been chosen as the chamber for the introduction of the Government's Bill to enable weight and size limits to be enforced more effectively against the growing number of heavy vehicles entering this country from abroad. This move was forecast by Lord Windlesham, Minister of State at the Home Office, during an Upper House debate on the Queen's speech in which anxieties about the size of foreign lorries had been voiced.
Lord Windlesham noted too that research was now being carried out which, it was hoped, would show how, in due course, new lorries might be made as quiet as private cars were now.
He said that the Government was keenly aware of the difficulties caused by heavy lorries travelling in the streets of small towns not designed for them, and he recalled some of the measures already proposed to combat this.
Lord Windlesham made special mention of improved parking facilities and the by-passing of historic towns, and pointed out that Mr Peyton had refused to allow an increase in the maximum weight and size of lorries and had announced stricter noise and smoke standards.
Earlier Lord Mancroft had told of seeing container lorries from Holland and Belgium "about the size of your Lordships' Chamber".
The situation was already bad enough in this country with our own domestic lorries, he said.
But though trade had to move, and transport had to carry the goods, what worried him was that we were going to have more and more foreign lorries of enormous size coming in which were difficult to control because they were not subject to our rules and regulations.
He was not criticizing the standard of driving, added Lord Mancroft, because long-distance lorry drivers were among the mos't courteous and skilful drivers on the roads. But if there were not control of some kind over foreign lorries there would be no ancient buildings left to be protected.
Worries about the size of foreign lorries were also expressed during the Commons' debate on the Queen's Speech.
Sir Robert Cary (Tory, Withington) said that he hoped to see a Bill to make effective the enforcement of the law on the owners of foreign lorries used on United Kingdom roads, and to amend the law on the size and weight of other lorries. But he did not think there was any room in the legislative programme for that or any other measures.
Mr John Parker (Labour, Dagenham) called for adequate control of heavy container vehicles entering our ports. He suggested that all vehicles should be classified by the size and weight, with large lorries limited to the motorways and certain other roads classified as suitable for them.
This would mean that large road haulage firms and local councils should be encouraged, if necessary by government subsidy, to create large parking and distribution centres outside the large cities, in much the same way as liner trains collected goods from assembly points and conveyed them to places where they were unloaded.