Highland hours coup
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■ COTTISH HIGHLAND operators have pulled off a coup by arrangig a face-to-face meeting with the EEC's chief transport civil serant in Inverness this week.
The Highlands and Islands Devlopment Board has persuaded :EC transport director-general lohn Steele to extend a one-day risit to the Freight Transport Asiociation in,Glasgow to take in jrass roots discussions with ransport operators who are :ampaigning for concessions rom social regulations on driv)rs' hours.
Mr Steele was expected at a seminar in Inverness on Thursday, to which operators and local authority representatives were being drawn from all parts of of the Highlands and Islands. He was to be shown a 20-minute video film prepared by the HIDB to highlight the transport problems created by the standard of roads in the region, and was then to face questions on drivers' hours and tachograph regulations.
The session was being chaired by HIDB senior transport officer Donald MacCuish, and a panel of experts including FTA director general Hugh Featherstone and former EEC assistant to the director general Ken Munro was to join Mr Steele.
Commenting before the meeting, Mr MacCuish said: "The nature of Highland roads affects freight operations to the serious disadvantage of the area compared with the rest of the UK and most of Europe with its network of motorways.
"Until we have better roads the aim of the HIDB and the road freight industry is to win more flexiblity in local application of the rules," he added.
Mr MacCuish went on to explain that as the EEC is preparing information on the hours and tachograph legislation for next month's Transport Council meeting in Brussels, he hoped the Inverness meeting would help Mr Steele in his task.
This seminar is an alternative to an earlier and more ambitious plan of taking Mr Steele by road to Inverness, calling at operators' meetings en route.
After the seminar, he was expected to attend a private meeting with the council representatives.