MPs divided over move to 44 tonnes
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by Miles Brignall ▪ MPs who advise the Government on transport policy are split on the introduction of 44-tanners for general haulage.
Gwyneth Dunwoody, Labour MP for Nantwich and a high-profile member of the Transport Select Committee, believes that the Government supports a move to 44 tonnes.
She is concerned that once the Deregulation and Contracting Out Bill becomes law (see opposite page), the Government could change the law governing vehicle weights and dimensions without a full parliamentary debate.
But fellow transport committee member Brian Donohoe, Labour MP for Cunningham South, thinks the Government is "keen to keep the status quo" to avoid upsetting potential Tory voters in rural areas.
lain Mills, joint chairman of an all-party group of MPs known as the Motor Industry Group, agrees that a higher weight limit is unlikely.
So far the Government has made no formal response to a report by the European Communities sub-committee of the House of Lords which has recommended a 44tonne limit on six axles (CM August 25-31). But at Transfrigoroute's AGM in Stratford-on-Avon last week, Mills, Conservative MP for Meriden, said: "The battle is lost before it has started."
Citing the unpopularity of the Government and the strength of opposition to heavier trucks among traditional Tory supporters, Mills says hauliers hoping for changes are being unrealistic.
E A city centre crackdown on smoky vehicles was launched this week by Transport Secretary Brian Mawhinney at the Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth.
Offenders will be forced to take immediate remedial action and excessively smoking vehicles will be barred from the roads: "I shall be targeting city centres across the country in the next two months to catch the guilty vehicles—whether lorries, buses, taxis or cars."
He is also considering, with the Departments of Health and
—,41141 Environment, further ways to