London truck an threatens chaos
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• Hauliers face chaos if a London borough goes ahead with plans for a total ban on night and weekend movements of trucks in a mixed industrial and residential area.
Bexley Council will hold a public inquiry on 22 September into the proposed ban in Slade Green, between the A206 trunk road and the Thames. The plan has been drawn up in response to complaints from residents.
The scheme would ban all lorry movements between 21:00 and 06:00hrs Monday to Friday; before 13:00hrs on Saturdays and all day Sundays. If approved it will begin next spring.
Council spokesman John Abbott says: "There is quite a long history of concern from local residents over problems of noise. The council has now decided to try and prevent road usage (by vehicles over 7.5 tonnes) at unsociable hours."
TDG subsidiary Beck & Pollitzer operates 35 vehicles from a depot at Slade Green. Ian Jardine, operations director at the depot, says that the scheme would have a "very substantial impact" on operations.
"It would affect about 15% of essential traffic," he says. "We've expended E4m on development of the site since we came into the area in 1985, and we've brought employment to the area. We are fighting the ban, and looking for some sensible reactions from the council."
The future looks even more bleak for Roger Mortimore, owner of R Mortimore Transport, which operates four vehicles from the Slade Green area.
"If the ban comes off it will close us down," says Mortimore. "About 75% of our traffic is abnormal loads, which always run at odd hours."
Don McIntyre, highways and traffic controller for the Freight Transport Association, says: "This is even more onerous than the GLC's London Lorry Ban, because there is no exemption scheme. It has very serious implications for operators on the estate."
McIntyre says that the clash between industry and local residents was bound to happen, because Slade Green was developed without a proper road infrastructure. But that, he says, is the council's responsibility.
The only access to the indus trial estate is provided by a byway with housing at one end. The surrounding land is owned by Russell Stoneham Estates, which has twice submitted proposals for development of the land which would have included the construction of a "spine road" into the estate, avoiding the residential area.
Both proposals were rejected because they would have affected Crayford Marshes, which is green belt land. A third, scaleddown plan is now being considered by the Secretary of State for the Environment — but this involves running a road through a residential area in nearby Erith.
Cedar Transport & Warehousing, which operates 34 vehicles from a 1.4ha warehouse in Erith, runs about half of its traffic during hours covered by the proposed ban.
"It will be costly and it could lose us customers," says chairman Tony Dyer. "If you're going to build an estate the infrastructure has to be designed first — which seems to be the last thing the bureaucratic minds have considered." Roger Mortimore is clear about what the council should do: "Build a link road, give us an exemption, or pay us corn pensation."