P slams HGV cafe ban
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• Labour Euro MP Joyce Quin has asked the European Commission to crack down on cafes and motorway services that refuse to serve lorry drivers. She told the European Parliament last week that these cafes are harming the haulage industry and putting road safety at risk by not letting drivers stop, rest and eat properly when they need to do so.
Now Quin, who is MP for Gateshead East and MEP for Tyne and Wear, has tabled a question in the European Parliament asking Brussels to supply details of all truckstop facilities throughout the EEC.
She is adamant that facilities for truck drivers are much better in West Germany, Holland and France than they are in the UK. The European Commission should ensure that all HGV drivers receive fair treatment in every member country, she urged in Strasbourg last week. Drivers should not have to drive long distances when they are hungry because they cannot find a cafe to serve them, she says.
Roads and traffic minister Peter Bottomley has also been put under pressure in the truckstops campaign. In a written answer in the House of Lack of British truckstop facilities is now being discussed in the European Parliament.
Commons last week, after being asked what progress the Department of Transport had made on the provision of more truckstops near motorways, Bottomley said he plans to meet the three main local authorities concerned, as well as oil companies and catering companies, "to secure comprehensive facilities where needed."
Bottomley also met Dennis Mills and Jack Ashwell of the Transport and General Workers Union last week to discuss, among other things, the union's truckstop campaign. The Ministery was supportive and sympathetic to the TGWU case, says Mills, and "he said that he agreed that lorry drivers should have a higher profile and better facilities."
Mills is continuing his longrunning battle with Trusthouse Forte over what he and many drivers feel is the company's discriminatory attitude against truck drivers, banning them from the firm's chain of Little Chef restaurants and from its new South Mimrns service station on the M25.
At a recent meeting with the company, Mills asked THE to take down its notices which ban truck drivers and to sort out the situation at South Mirnms. THF's attitude was "as intrasigent as ever", says Mills, "and they told me they would probably put things right at South Minims in about 12 months time. It is not good enough."