Lifetime 0-licences
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• The Government has reiterated its intention to introduce lifetime 0-licences as soon as parliamentary time becomes available.
But the plan, which was originally mooted two years ago following the Arman report, has come under fresh attack from outspoken South Wales Licensing Authority John Mervyn Pugh.
He says that under such a system every licence application would have to be dealt with at a public inquiry, with local authorities and residents being able to seek restrictions.
The haulage industry did not realise the implications of continuous licensing, Pugh told a seminar of local authority representatives last week.
The original 1990 plan was welcomed by the Freight Transport Association and Road Haulage Association, but the FTA attacked the length of time the change would take to become law.
The Government said at the time that lifetime licences would require primary legislation — in other words, an amendment to law in Parliament.
Speaking at last week's seminar, the author of the report, Tony Arman of the DTp's Traffic Area Co-ordination Division, said that continuous licences were still on the department's legislative agenda.
The DTp says the move is a "matter of intention", but it cannot say when it might come before MPs.
Pugh told the representatives of 28 Welsh local authorities who attended the seminar that all such licences would have conditions attached restricting .the times of operation and the size and number of vehicles.
0-licences currently have to be renewed every five years, but the process is usually a for