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MP demands 'scow-end' tipper safety inquiry
Page 30
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by CM reporter
• A row is brewing over the growing use of tipping vehicles without tailboards in the Yorkshire area. Following an investigation into the practice by the Yorkshire Evening Post, Mr Wilf Proudfoot. Tory MP for Brighouse and Spenborough, is to write to Mr John Peyton, Minister for Transport Industries, to demand an investigation into the design of tipping vehicles designated as "scow end".
Mr Proudfoot told CM this week, that he feels strongly enough about the matter to raise it in the House should the reply to his letter to Mr Peyton not be satisfactory.
Used mainly by demolition and plant-hire companies, the number of scow-end vehicles has been increasing considerably in Yorkshire in recent months — but it all depends on what is meant by the term "scow end".
The Yorkshire Evening Post has published pictures of vehicles carrying all kinds of loose material, including scrap iron, which do not appear to be scow-end types at all. These photographs have been shown to the Automobile Association, " the Yorkshire Accident Prevention Federation and the police who have all condemned the vehicles as dangerous. The police said that most of the vehicles shown in the photographs would be stopped by the police if they were seen and the drivers warned about the safety of the loads.
A Midlands bodybuilder told CM that the true scow-end vehicle body was of the dumper type with the rear of the body raised to an angle of between 10 and 15 degrees so that the angle of tip would have to be above that angle before the load could be deposited. In that case, rams longer than fitted to the normal tipper would have to be used.
One of the biggest users of vehicles without tailboards in the Leeds area is Irving Ainsworth Ltd, plant-hire contractor of Batley. The company has 33 of this type of tipping unit and plans to acquire more.
Commenting on the design of his vehicles, Mr Colin Ainsworth, a director of the company, said that the rear 3ft of the body was raised about 6in. to prevent material being dropped. In addition, he said, the 12 cu yd body was loaded only with 8 Cu yd as an additional precaution.
The company had received no complaints of materials being dropped from its vehicles and felt that there was little danger of material being scattered on the road from the vehicles which the company is using. Indeed, Mr Ainsworth quoted an article in the Spenborough Guardian which had complimented the company on the way it had operated its tippers in the area.
Further, said Mr Ainsworth, the police were very active in Yorkshire against unsafe operators and tipping companies in the county knew that action would be quickly taken against them by the police if they were to use an unsafe vehicle.
Despite Mr Ainsworth's claims, it is obvious that there is some public consternation about the types of tippers being used in the Leeds area. Mr Proudfoot's approach to the Minister on the matter will almost certainly focus more adverse publicity on the haulage industry — publicity that it could well do without.
A Road Haulage Association spokesman said on Monday that the true scow-end vehicle was quite safe but the Association would deprecate the use of conventional tipping vehicles, modified at the rear end running with loose material without a tailboard.