More Fuel for• Holiday Coaches
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I AM sure that we shall manage to do better, than the 50 per cent. ration now allocated to long-distance coaches, but I cannot say by how much the ration will be increased," Mr. Harold Watkinson, Minister of Transport, said in the House of Commons last week, when asked questions about fuel for coach tours during the holiday season_
Answering other questions, he said: Certificates of Fitness: He was considering whether the Certificates of Fitness Regulations should be modified to include more vehicles in the 12-14-scat range.
Checking Records: Seventy-one officers were employed on the examination of records of drivers of commercial vehicles, but he hoped to increase the number to 95 when fuel rationing ended. Relieving Congestion: He proposed to consult the motoring organizations and the British Transport Commission to decide what further action should be taken to encourage motorists to park their cars near railway stations and complete their journeys to London by rail. The policy would be to try to spread the traffic load more evenly ii the future by the increasing application of staggered hours and by the full use of the provisions Of. the 1956 Act.
In conjunction with the Home Secretary and the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, the Minister was considering what additional enforcement measures, including the towing away, of parked cars, might be necessary. He agreed that everything should be done to .deter private motorists from entering London by strict enforcement of all parking restrictions.
Dispensations for C-licensees: All the Regional Transport Commissioners had now granted general authorizations
allowing C-licensees to carry the goods of other C-licence holders, provided that the traffic would in any event have been carried in an ancillary vehicle.
No Preference: No priority would be given to the testing of learner drivers of commercial vehicles when driving tests Were re-introduced.
Cost of Accidents: Lord Mancroft, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, told the House of Lords that the Road Research Laboratory estimated the economic cost of road accidents last year as about 1110m. By a coincidence, that sum was at the moment also being spent annually on the road programme.
SCOTTISH ROADS: T.U.C. ATTACK
" PPARENT indifference" by the 1-1 Government to the inadequacy of Scottish roads was criticized last week by the general council of the Scottish T.U.C. Local authorities were claimed to be supporting almost unbearable burdens.
The council demanded that all trunk and main roads should he widened, main towns by-passed, low and narrow bridges removed and street lighting improved.
BIG CANADIAN ORDER 1-1 A CONTRACT worth about S1.5m. has been awarded to the Pyrene Co., Ltd., by the Royal Canadian Air Force for Pyrene Mark VI crash fire tenders, based on Alvis Saracen chassis powered by Rolls-Royce engines. Similar .tenders are being made for the R.A.F.
Another order for Pyrene crash tenders has been received from the Canadian Department of Transport (Civil Aviation).