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with other duties". The police have not so far attempted to prosecute any hauliers for breaking the ban.
According to Superintendent John Pitt, the Metropolitan Police representative on the London Borough Transport Committee's Officers Advisory Panel, policing the ban has been made even more difficult by poor signpostitig.
While Pitt accepts that the police have a duty to enforce it, he says: "We have not got the resources to put a policeman on every sign," and enforcement activites will depend on what else the police have to do: "If an officer sees a lorry breaking the ban on his way to a burglary he's not going to leave that to deal with it."
The LBTC, which represents the 22 London boroughs still wishing to keep the lorry ban, now looks like tackling the problem of poor signs — particularly on those side roads leading off major routes in London which are now controlled by the Department of Transport. It has appointed a firm of consultants to survey the current level of lorry ban signposting and report back on what extra signs or remedial work is required.
Consultancy TPA expect to present its findings to the LBTC by the beginning of February 1988. Following its preliminary work it says: "The ban cannot be fully enforced because the signs are in a terrible condition. It's difficult to see how the police can enforce it in some areas." TPA says that many signs are missing or vandalised, and "until the work is carried out it cannot be effectively enforced".
The remedial work is expected to be completed by next autumn, when a fresh crackdown on ban breakers is likely to start. Pitt confirms that police enforcement can be expected to be stepped-up following an improvement in signposting.
Some 2,300 ban signs were originally put up by the GLC. TPA expects that with the withdrawal of a number of boroughs from the ban, the final figure required will be around 2,000. The cost of the remedial work has not been revealed, however.
The problem of lorry ban signs is likely to be exacerbated when two-axle 17tonners become legal in April next year. So far all lorry ban signs refer to the prohibition of vehicles over 16.5-tonnes GVW, and they would all need to be changed if 17-tonne rigids are to be allowed in the capital.