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• Local authority chiefs are to ask the Government for powers to fight large-scale transfers of freight from rail to road.
The Association of County Councils will meet next Thursday (25 June) to study a request from North Yorkshire County Council for legislative changes designed to give councils notice of major shifts from rail to road.
The ACC, which represents 47 county councils in England and Wales, is expected to support the request and lobby the Department of Transport for the extra powers.
North Yorkshire's campaign follows the attempt by British Steel to shift around 9,000 tonnes of limestone a week to road on the 35km route between Redmire Quarry and the Redcar Steelworks.
It is thought that British Steel changed its mind following environmental uproar and the jailing last month of the haulier tipped to win the contract for 60 truck loads a day. Leyburnbased A W Biker, trading as Bikers of Bedale, was fined £27,000 and managing director Anthony Biker was jailed for nine months for tachograph fraud.
0 Anthony Biker is expected to leave prison on 2 July for a disciplinary hearing about the com pany's good repute. Although Bikers of Bedale is in receivership, the receivers can run the company as a going concern on its existing 0-licence for 18 months. If Bikers' licence is revoked any purchaser of the company will have to apply for another licence.