Councils divided
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LOCAL AUTHORITIES have reacted to the heavy lorry proposals on largely party lines, with the Labour-controlled Association of Metropolitan authorities telling Mr Howell to think again, and the Conservative Association of County Councils giving them a qualified welcome.
AMA planning and transportation committee chairman Jack Graham said: "Mr Howell has made yet another statement about increasing lorry weights to 38 tonnes. Through all the months that we have been waiting for his promised statements, people of all kinds and backgrounds and interests have been advising him to drop his proposals. It is still not too late for him to do so."
Mr Graham said the AMA is not convinced that there are any benefits which outweigh the damage to the environment, living conditions, and roads and bridges which will result from heavier lorries.
He described the "handful" of bypasses as adding insult to injury, and accused Mr Howell of bowing to the wishes of the road freight industry instead of accepting that ordinary people do not like existing lorries and are even less keen on heavier ones.
Mr Graham said the AMA would be considering the possibility of co-ordinating action on wider bans on the use of lorries in metropolitan counties.
Welcoming the proposals, ACC transport committee chairman Arnold Sayers said the abandoning of the 34-tonne proposal would meet the needs of industry without causing unacceptable environmental or road damage.
He called for more work on quietening lorries, and said that more effort should be made towards introducing satisfactory spray guards. There also is a need for legislation to enable local authorities to provide noise insulation in homes affected by lorries.
Mr Sayers congratulated the Government for making "genuine efforts" to give local authorities power to deal with overloaded lorries, but said the ACC is still concerned about the damage which lorries could do to bridges.
He said that the Government has made a real attempt to provide more by-passes, but said he was disappointed that no new money had been provided for them.
The Association of District Councils said it would continue to oppose the increase as it considers it unfortunate that the weights increase is being planned in advance of the compensatory environmental measures in the Government's package.