"Overnight Parking Solution Must Not Hamper Trade"
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FROM OUR PARLIAMENTARY CORRESPONDENT
MOST, if not all, of the goods vehicles parked overnight in London's residential streets were owned by less efficient provincial road haulage firms, claimed Mr. Albert Evans (Lab., Islington South West) in the Commons last week. The most efficient firms, the better firms, made off-street provision for their vehicles at night, he said, when he opened a debate on parking in the capital.
British Road Services did not offend in this respect and London haulage firms almost invariably had some yard or place where their vehicles could be parked off the road. Vehicles which were merely "birds of passage" from one part of the country to another should not be allowed to stay all night in London residential streets, to the discomfort of residents, and adding to congestion, said Mr. Evans.
He suggested that the Commissioner of Police might devise a general policy of shepherding lorries outside the Metropolitan area for their all-night stops. Mr. Evans said he understood there was no necessity for most of these vehicles to stay in London all night.
These lorries came into London for a specific purpose, principally so that they could load or unload either early in the morning or late at night, replied Mr. John Hay, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport. They were there to do a particular job which assisted the national economy.
Therefore, he went on, whatever solution was found it must be one that did not hamper trade; and one of the reasons why these lorries stayed overnight was that the drivers stayed in London. Either their homes were there--and this was frequently the case, even with lorries based in the provinces—or there were lorry drivers' hostels.
What was wanted was a number of lorry parks throughout various parts of London where this problem was particularly acute. These might possibly be on bombed sites, though there might even be twoor three-storey parks. What was certain was that we could not let the situation go on as it was.
The responsibility normally for providing off-street parking lay with the local authority, pointed out Mr. Hay. but the Government thought that here the hauliers themselves and the operators at focal points such as wharves and docks also had art important part to play. It was certainly not a central government responsi bi lity.
The police felt that, until there was more off-street parking accommodation, the extent to which they could justifiably take action was limited, said Mr. Hay. The Commissioner regarded it as the lesser of two evils that vehicles should park in residential side streets rather than in main thoroughfares where they would cause considerably greater damage.
The departmental working party looking into the problem had started by concentrating its attention on the Tooley Street area in Bermondsey. In that area up to 900 lorries a day might call at the wharves, and some of them might have to wait more than a day before they could load or unload.
For the first time in the history of London the Ministry of Transport was taking action to bring all the people associated with the problem together to try to get them to work out an agreed solution. controversial measure disposed of the last amendments.
But the Committee's work is not over. Now it faces the task of considering the Road Traffic Bill.
NO MINISTERIAL ORDER ON SMOKING IN BUSES
THE B.T.C. will not be told by the
Minister of Transport that all smoking must be prohibited in its singledecker buses and limited to the upper deck in others. A suggestion that a "general direction" on these lines should be given by the Minister was rejected in the Commons last week by Mr. John Hay, the Parliamentary Secretary.
This was a question within the discretion of the Commission as it was with any other bus operator, Mr. Hay told Mr. L. Williams (Lab., Abertillery).
Mr. Marples was equally unaccommodating when Dr. Alan Thompson (Lab., Dunfermline) asked for an assurance that he would not over-rule future decisions of the Traffic Commissioners to restrict smoking to the upper decks of buses.
He did not feel it would be right for him to give the assurance, said Mr. Marples, since he had to decide statutory appeals against the decisions of the Traffic Commissioners on the evidence and arguments before him in each case.
PROSECUTIONS FOR SMOKING EXHAUSTS
pROVISIONAL figures showed that in
England and Wales during 1961 there were 1,672 prosecutions under Regulation 79 of the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations for the unlawful emission of smoke.
Mr. R. A. Butler, the Home Secretary, said it was not known how many of the prosecutions were successful.
(More Parliamentary news appears on pages 342 and 345.)
PIPELINES—NEW ERA OF TRANSPORT
BEFORE the Committee stage of the Pipelines Bill was concluded in the Lords last week an unsuccessful attempt was made to ensure that the Minister of Transport, and not the Minister of Power, should be responsible for its administration. Moving an amendment designed to bring this about, Lord Silkin said the case for it was quite unanswerable. Right from the beginning, in recognition of the fact that We were entering into a new era of transport, the responsible Minister should be the Minister of Transport.
Lord Lucas of Chilworth supported . the move, and said pipelines might well revolutionize the transportation of liquids and solids—upsetting the whole of the nation's transport economics.
Resisting the amendment, Lord Mills, the Minister without Portfolio, agreed there was much in what its supporters . said, but thought that the Minister of Power should be responsible for the time being.
Lord Silkin warned that the matter would be raised again.
PIPELINE MILEAGE
A BOUT 1,420 miles of cross-country r-k pipelines come under the Pipelines Bill now before the House-of Lords, said Mr. Richard Wood, the Minister of Power, last week. About 220 miles were owned by oil companies and the rest by the Government.
TRANSPORT BILL THROUGH COMMITTEE
THE Transport Bill is through Com, mittee at last. At the 35th sitting last week the Standing Committee of the Commons which has been considering the