Weighbridge tests plan
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• Local councils in the UK are looking at the feasibility of running their own Weighbridge Testing Units now that the Government plans to allow private firms to check the facilities.
At present only a handful of Trading Standards departments have their own weighbridge testing equipment. This might include a tractive unit, trailer, fork-lift and cali brated weights. Taking maintenance costs and driver's wages into account these units can be expensive to acquire and run.
Norfolk County Council has put its weighbridge testing unit up for sale. Paul McCreary, senior assistant head of trading standards at the council, says: "Historically, weighing and measuring equipment had to be tested by a Trading Standards officer. But this will change; people who install the weighbridges will be able to verify the equipment themselves."
He describes the sale of Norfolk's unit as "a reflection of the changing market, brought about by the change in legislation. The sale includes a Volvo FL10, a triaxle trailer, a four-wheeldrive fork-lift and a series of calibrated cast-iron block weights.
"We carry out a variety of tests. increasing and decreasing the
weights," says McCreary. 'We compare the weight with the reading on the scales to make sure the weighbridge is accurate. Councils will have to look if it is financially viable." But Essex County Council, which set up its mobile Weighbridge Testing Unit in January 1998, plans to keep it. The council tests an average of four weighbridges a day, says Malcolm Shead, head of metrology at the trading standards department