Hammond to hit the road with ELB
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STEPHEN HAMMOND MP has agreed to go out on the road with Wimbledonbased ELB Partners next month to see first-hand the challenges LGV drivers face delivering in London.
ELB Partners contacted its local MP earlier this month to express the management team's ongoing frustration at the biased reporting of truck and bicycle collisions by the mainstream media. The move comes after one of the operator's drivers was involved in a fatal cycling collision in 2011 (CM5 December).
The company, which is a Transport for London (TfL) Fleet Operators Recognition Scheme bronze member, wants mandatory cyclist training introduced alongside a minimum vehicle safety equipment specification.
ELB Partners MD Peter Eason and transport manager Mark Norman also voiced concerns about calls for a London LGV ban to the MP when he met them at their head office.
Hammond said that, while he did not want to see the issue reduced to a case of "one versus the other", he felt "cyclists have to be responsible too". He agreed that a ban on lorries was unfeasible as "London would come to a halt".
Hammond is due to experience London's roads with ELB Partners on 31 January. He is also seeing if a meeting of London hauliers and cycling groups hosted by TfL could create a useful forum.