Opposition to milk plans
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• The Milk Marketing Board has been told to look again at its proposals to reorganise milk haulage amid fears that the plans may not allow free competition.
The Department of Agriculture, which issued the warning last week, is particularly worried that proposals to automatically transfer contracts from the MMB to the new body, Milk Marque, will strangle efforts to create a more open market.
And despite MMB assurances that all contracts would be put out to tender by the end of 1994, the Government has warned that the plans to create Milk Marque may not be approved in their present form.
The reorganisation proposals, which have already come in for sharp criticism from the dairies, were due to be put into effect next April when Milk Marque is due to be launched.
But now the MMB will have to convince Department of Agriculture officials that the milk market will be be free enough under the planned new system.
An MMB spokeswoman supports the haulage proposals, although she does not rule out some changes in response to the Government criticisms. "The reason that we believe some contracts should be transferred is a purely practical one because some contracts run out at different times to others," she says.