40-tonner limps on, but will it survive?
Page 3
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
E 40-TONNE lorry crawled an inch closer to reality last week, but as begun to jack-knife and it remains to be seen whether the vernment can stop it from crashing into oblivion, writes ALAN .LAR.
idustry representatives who )nded last week's House of -nmons debate, where the vernment survived an Oppoon motion to throw out the loosed weights increase by a vote majority, came away winced that the industry will (etc) intensify its lobbying. :leven Conservatives voted h the Opposition, but the vernment did better when it
• a 43-vote majority in favour putting the White Paper on 'ies, people, and the environsnt out for another two Inths' consultation.
Nhile Labour transport )kesman Albert Booth used tistics to attack the Governfit's proposals, and said that a proposed increase in ights from 32.5 to 34, 38, and tonnes would swing the bale away from rail to road ight, other MPs were more act in their opposition.
'ormer Conservative Transrt Minister John Peyton, who :sided over the Heath Govern!nt's refusal to accept EEC sposals for heavier lorries in itain, recommended that ansport Secretary David well should reduce the White Der to pulp, ;ocial Democrat spokesman in Cartwright accepted that !re is a case for the heavier ry, but said the public would ly be satisfied if environmenimprovements and safeards are incorporated in a
3ordon Bagier (Labour, Sun-land South), a member of the mmons transport committee, d that the argument was an Dnomic one, with operators termined to secure the maxiJM advantage by operating avier vehicles.
-le said he hoped that Mr well would desist from using laptrap' about the great wings consumers would gain rn an increase in weights. If it s..ant a saving of £150m, as the lite Paper suggested, that sounted to around a tenth of a nny for the consumer.
3everal speakers said there had to be a commitment to more by-passes before any increase in weights is sanctioned, and it is this mood which offers the industry some hope for the future,
Room on board for 11 Tory rebels? Two policemen examine the extra axle on the RHA 's 38-tonne propaganda vehicle outside Parliament last Wednesday. The lorry has been reprieved for the campaigning months ahead.
especially as another roads White Paper is being prepared.
Winding up for the Government, Junior Transport Minister Kenneth Clarke told MPs that he wants rural England to be preserved, and confessed to detesting heavy lorries, but begged MPs' patience.
If, after two months' consultation, the House came down against the proposed weights increase, that would be fair enough, but it would be unfair to the industry for it to be rejected out of hand at this stage.