Councils ask for wider protest law
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• Operators will be hit harder by environmental legislation if the Association of County Councils persuades the Department of Transport to change the present law by increasing the rights of residents who live near depots.
Presently the DTp is reviewing the two-year-old environmental legislation which requires Licensing Authorities to consider any residents' complaints when an operator's licence is either begun, renewed or varied.
All other interested parties, including the Road Haulage Association and the Freight Transport Association, submitted their opinions last year, and the FTA now says that it particularly opposes the ACC's proposal to widen the definition of "vicinity" of the depot.
The LA has to have regard for the effect of an operating centre on its vicinity — but as yet the term has no precise legal definition.
Now the ACC is to argue to the DTp that vicinity should include those roads near the centre which authorised vehicles use because there are no others.