Fury at apathy over action appeal
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• A rural haulier who has improved the chance of winning financial concessions from the Government is furious over the lack of support from other small hauliers.
Shropshire-based Sim Jordan, who runs six trucks as Jordan's Transport, is angry after only one operator responded to his appeal in CM for companies hit by increased vehicle excise and fuel duties to push their Labour MPs into a coordinated meeting with hauliers.
His own Labour MP, Paul Marsden, has worked hard for his local hauliers and had offered to find a room for MPs and hauliers to meet. With Jordan's help he presented a petition of 160 hauliers to the Government complaining about the effect of the tax rises on their rural businesses.
Replying to the petition, Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Secretary John Prescott has said the Government is prepared to consider 'special assistance" to small hauliers—the first sign of a concession since hauliers' complaints increased after the March Budget (CM 13-19 May).
But Jordan says: "One Labour MP can't stand alone against the Government." It would take a group of at least five sympathetic MPs to make the Government listen seriously to the hauliers' plight.
Jordan is surprised by the level of apathy: "I always thought it prevailed, but not to this extent," he says. 'Are we just a bloody brainless lot or what?" The lack of interest follows recent complaints by legal consultant Colin Ward that noone has responded to his appeal to fund a legal challenge to the taxation hikes. Jordan's wife -Ina says she welcomes the possibility of financial help for small hauliers but is worried that the offer could turn out to be a "stalling tactic".