Derbyshire plays tough
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DERBYSHIRE County Council is playing brinkmanship with the Government by threatening to impose county-wide bans on 38-tonne lorries if its bridge strengthening bill is not paid out of central funds. tracks. The Labour-controlled council estimates that between £2m and &lin will need to be spent on strengthening bridges to take heavier lorries, and it has asked for an early meeting with the Department of Transport to discuss the funding of this.
Highways and transport committee chairman Dave Allen told CM that a weight limit on unsuitable county roads was one possible course of action, especially as a negotiating counter with the Government.
He said the county opposed the weights increase before Parliament agreed to it, and the view now was that the Government should provide the funds for the bridge strengthening.
MrAllen stressed that the ban would not be applied to DTp roads in Derbyshire, in the manner in which the Greater London Council wants to ban heavy vehicles from DTp roads in its area, and added that a particularly acute problem exists in the Peak District where there are substantial mineral movements.
Meanwhile, Cambridgeshire's proposals for a 16.5-tonne weight limit on a section of the A45 between the Al and the county boundary have been stopped in their tracks. The county wanted to take a final decision on the ban at a meeting last week, but it is still awaiting the Department of Transport's authority to go ahead, and has deferred decision until March at the earliest.
A DTp spokesman said this week that the matter is being given its "urgent consideration" but could not say when it would give its final view.