's truckstop nder threat
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for the lease, but denies that nts to close the site. However ,Irry giant wants to "improve standard" of the "smoky" eria.
me 200 trucker customers signed a petition in support e 40-seat cafe, which is part e Newhaven ferry terminal ling operated by Stena nk. Flicks European Haulage's Cliff Arnold says hauliers are up in arms at the move: "We are all fighting to save our cafe. Longdistance drivers can't get a meal if the cafe closes" The loss of the Newhaven truckstop would be seen by many hauliers as yet another blow as Britain's trunk road truckstops come under pressure from a Department of Transport decision to limit the number of laybys built on new roads and bypasses. And United Road Transport president Mike Billingham adds that this case highlights the continuing demise of the British truckstop.
He criticises the DOT's publicly stated antipathy towards truckstops on the laybys of trunk roads and points to the case of the 100seat Jacks Hill Cafe on the A5 in Northants which was bypassed with the building of a new road avoiding Filisworth.
Jacks Hill owner Barrie Freeman says he had an "uphill battle" to gain access to a new site on the new bypass, despite the support of Northants District Council, after a DOT official argued that the Government wants to discourage unnecessary link road building.
The DOT confirms that it does not have a statutory duty to provide a new site jilt closes an existing truckstop: official policy is to "turn a blind eye" to the cafes unless they represent a danger to public safety. However not all hauliers are satisfied with the traditional style of transport cafe.
Richard Fry operations manager of Framptons Intermit ional in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. iays: "The majority of drivers do now prefer the more modern stop The days of the check-shined trucker not washing for several days and dining on fry-ups swimming in fat are gone. I think the days of the greasy spoon are numbered." O The defiant truckstop owner who welded himself into his condemned premises is still in good spirits after a full two months without seeing the outside world, says his wife. Peter Hawes is protesting about the i IX)T's refusal to provide an alternative site for a truckstop after it planned to close his cafe on the Guyhirn layby on the , A47 in Cambriclgehire (Of 24-80 June).