Northern councils plan C ii ii iti c t! . l au f ro c u e t s
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their own lorry bans
THE LORRY is corning under increasing environmental tire in West Yorkshire, where the county council is considering introducing a night ban in Leeds based on the Greater London Council's scheme.
Although the idea is at a very early stage, it would involve banning lorries over 16.5 tonnes between 11 pin and 7am on 13 bridges across the River Aire. They run between a point north of Bradford to the M6 2-Al junction at Knottingley, near Pontefract.
This would stop lorries from crossing a north-west to south-east cordon running through Leeds, although there has been talk of an exemption permit scheme for local firms. FTA northern assistant secretary Geoff Dunning told CM.
"The West Yorkshire County Council has agreed to start preparing legal procedures for the ban. It will have to set the wheel in motion so that the district councils will be able to carry on with it after its abolition on April I," Dunning says.
WYCC's response is in retaliation to the Government's decision to drop the idea of building an Al-MI link. That would have enabled traffic to by-pass Leeds, WYCC Building of the part to the west of Leeds has been completely dropped, while decision has been deferred on the section to the east.
The ETA has already expressed its opposition to the scheme. Its planning and traffic services manager Don McIntyre says: "If West Yorkshire is taking the precedent of London's scheme, it's showing how serious the London ban is."
And he adds: "It's the old problem of the double-edged sword for industry which doesn't get the benefit of the new road, and suffers under a horrendous lorry ban."
The council has also compiled a draft report called
Lorry Management ill IVest Yorkshire.
In the report, policies suggested to counter lorry movement problems include the development and fitting of on-board axle weighers, the use of voluntary lorry routes and urging the Government to include social and environmental costs in track costs.
• South Yorkshire County Council is also considering some kind of lorry ban because of residents' complaints about the level of coal traffic after the millers' strike.
County engineers have been asked to look at HGV numbers in the Doncaster area serving the Thorpe Marsh power station and to report hack on the need for restrictions to county councillors.
Doncaster Borough Council will take over from South Yorkshire Metropolitan County after its abolition, and it is known to be very keen to curtail coal lorry movements and to follow the metropolitan council's lead.