Weight Increases to be Mr. Marples
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Engaging Top Gear: New Bill for Wider Powers
BY OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT TRANSPORT problems are going to have a big place in Parliament this session. A new Bill from Mr. Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport, is confidently expected soon after reassembly at the end of this month. The Bill will give him greater powers to cope with congestion in London and provincial cities.
Explained
A COMPANY who had repeatedly r-k increased the unladen weights of their vehicles within the limit permitted without publication were called upon to explain the reason on Monday by Mr. 3. A. T. Hanlon, Northern .Licensing Authority, at Newcastle upon Tyne.
Dent's Transport (Spennymoot), Ltd., Tudhoe Colliery, County Durham, were applying to add three vans to an A licence, to substitute a platform lorry for a van on another A licence, and replace a B-licensed vehicle by two heavier vehicles.
Mr. Hanlon said that a vehicle of 6 tons 19 cwt. had been specified on A licence in March, 1958, and taken off in November, when the company applied to substitute a vehicle of 7 tons 3 cwt.
Within seven days, he continued, the concern applied again to take off another vehicle of 6 tons 9 cwt. This step involved the addition of 15 cwt. to the weight of the specified vehicle, and there had been similar transactions by which other specified weights had been increased.
• The company had started with an A licence for four vehicles each of about 5 tons 7 cwt., but they were now specified at some 7 tons 8 cwt.
Mr. T. H. Campbell Wardlaw, for the applicants, suggested that his clients had a vehicle which they used temporarily pending the delivery of new models. Mr. J. H. ,Dent, managing director, agreed with this and said that he never knew what the weights of vehicles he was to purchase would be.
The Authority responded that the vehicle in question was not new and had been off and on licence four times within days. Twenty-two changes to the licence had been made in a period of about 18 months.
He adjourned the hearing and said that he would want a history of the licence changes. The British Transport Commission appeared as objectors.
RATES ISSUE IN APPEAL
ACASE in which rates will be an important consideration will be heard by the Transport Tribunal in London next Thursday. S. Harfoot and Sons, Ltd., D. Griffith and Son, T. Griffiths and Sons and Robert Wynn and Sons, Ltd., are appealing against a grant by the South Wales Licensing Authority to S. Protheroe and Son.
The contentious Weaver appeal decision is likely to be quoted. The matter will be discussed by the national licensing committee of the Road Haulage Association, next Wednesday.
NEW EFFORT TO FIND FORMULA
THE Road Haulage Wages Council will meet again on February 2 to consider afresh the wording of a proposed concession under which a man who worked on a customary holiday would be given a day off in lieu, as well as double pay for working on the holiday. In London, for instance, the Pink Zone is to remaiii.after April, and it will probably be copied in the provinces. Arterial roads in London may be cleared of all parked vehicles during rush hours. This will bring difficulty to commercialvehicle traffic in loading and unloading, and M.P.s will watch the restrictions carefully so that they are not allowed to become unreasonable. There may also be a ban on right turns at intersections as well as the prohibition of U-turns that has worried many London taxi-drivers.
Mr. Marples is now believed to be abaut to appoint a traffic-engineering unit for London and to have a man in mind to head it. This idea will also be copied by go-ahead local authorities in the provinces. At the moment there are only one or two traffic engineers as such in the country, but such appointments are normal on the Continent.
Special Ministry Team Those who have studied the problem are convinced that no real progress can be made either in London or outside it on the present hit-or-miss basis. Mr. Marples is expected to set up a special team in the Ministry of Transport to cope with London, for which he has special responsibilities under the Road Traffic Act, 1924.
The establishment of such a department in the Ministry would create a Central team of experts who could advise the big cities of the provinces if they were to request it. The Minister is also believed to be planning a new drive for more motorways to connect the south and west with the industrial north and Midlands. The MI proved the speed with which these can be built, and the contracts for new motorways would be awarded so that there would be stretches of road long enough for each contractor to use the largest machines and the newest methods.
The teething troubles of M1 are not taken seriously but will provide guides for the future. Commercial traffic has already proved the value of MI, and new examples come in all the time.
In its present mood of urgency, Parliament is likely to be willing to give Mr. Marples all the powers he wants. Indeed, the Opposition, through their spokesman, Mr. Wedgwood Benn, have shown their willingness by their support for Mr. Benn's Private Bill to enlarge Mr. Marples' strength to deal with traffic. The Bill is only a demonstration, but it will, nevertheless, be a spur to the Government.
As well as all this, Mr. Marples is going in for long-term planning in a big way. M.P.s and city engineers all over the country will welcome this because they are now at the stage of planning road traffic for the first time since the railway displaced the stage coach.
Another step towards road safety is expected soon, perhaps next month, when the testing of old cars and light vans is likely to begin.