idcot Agreed, but with conditions
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DCOT power station's ming authority, the Vale White Horse, has now foray agreed to allow coal ics to feed the station.
but it wants the Central ctricity Generating Board make a binding agreement the nature of the operation tncluding a limit of 25, on number of lorries using :h of four designated tes.
'he CEGB does not appear 3e concerned about signing gal document, but it is unpy about restriction to 25 ies per route. But as we it to press, the CEGB had contacted the council.
'he CEGB is particularly .cerned over the restricis on the South Wales to lcot, Oxfordshire M4/A34 te. "Our understanding is t there is no environmental icern about the South les route," a spokesman I. The CEGB wants more te flexibility.
['he council's planning umittee agreed this week illow the use of coal lorries ignore most of the envimental pressure.
but it agreed to include le restrictions — including limit of lorries on each iignated route — after ssure from Oxfordshire I Warwickshire County uncils.
but it has agreed that up to deliveries a ,day can be
made into Didcot on weekdays, and that on , five days a year the number can be raised to 200. If rail-borne supplies are significantly disrupted, lorry numbers will be unlimited.
The council also wants all lorries to have clear front and rear markings showing that they are working for Didcot. This is to make sure that they do not come off the designated routes, council opposition leader and Oxfordshire County Council's environment spokesman Sheila Terry told CM.
The council also wants the lorries in and out of Didcot to stop at 8pm and not 9pm as planned.
If the CEGB and Vale of White Horse agree, the road operation will begin formally on January 1.
But meanwhile Oxfordshire County Council and the environmental pressure group Transport 2000 are working to block the
whole use of lorries by any legal method they can (CM, September 7).
• Transport 2000 and Terry both argue that Government pressure has kd to the Vale's decision to accept coal lorries into Didcot — even though it was built on the understanding that all coal would come by rail.
Terry told CM that Government pressure to use lorries, because of their strikebreaking efficiency during the pit ,strike, was a major influ ence on the Vale's thinking,"
A council report says: ". . In that case it would seem that the committee is faced with the following options: 1) to refuse the request (but in the full knowledge that the decision might well be overturned by the `Minister'); 2) to attempt to negotiate with the CEGB to reduce the number of lorry trips and confine them to certain routes."