III EDITOR'S COMMENT
Page 5
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• What on earth is the Department of Transport playing at, pushing through a full-scale review of the Operator Licensing system and then announcing that it has not got enough time to change anything before the next General Election? What are the Department's civil servants doing between now and then that is so crucial? Certainly not pushing for a 40-tonne weight limit before 1999 — that's for sure. More importantly, why does the Dip think that its own time is so precious, and that of the transport industry so worthless? Freight Transport Association director-general Garry Turvey is justifiably furious to hear that the time his members have spent re-assessing the system was wasted. To do the work as requested, and then be told that nothing is likely to happen for the next four years, must be monumentally frustrating. Frustrating enough to make one think twice the next time the Dip calls for industry comments on a legislative review. Turvey says: 'We are staggered that Ministers should have proceeded with these reviews without knowing when the necessary slot for the resulting primary legislation would be available." Commercial Motor is staggered that a Government, whose own Transport Minister has admitted that the current system is inadequate, cannot find the time to put things right. It certainly reinforces the road transport industry's long-held suspicion that we come way, way down on any government list of priorities. On the subject of government priorities, why do lower speed limits come higher up the list than building new roads or implementing an intelligent, properly planned and properly funded national and integrated transport network? Could it have something to do with cost, perhaps? Robert Atkins has got a cheek, threatening trucks with a 20mph (32km/h) urban speed limit to reduce accidents when he is repeatedly told that trucks would not go through urban areas if we had enough bypasses, motorways and dual carriageways. It is a long-term lack of Government infrastructure investment which has forced too many trucks onto roads which cannot cope with them. And if we are going to get really serious about lower truck speed limits, what will the effect of a 33% reduction in speed be on congestion — and where, Minister, is the statistical proof that underpins your assertion that "Lower speed limits in suitable residential areas could have a significant effect in reducing road casualties, particularly among children?" Road safety really is too important to become a vote-chasing political football.