Industry welcomes push for better service areas
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A MOVE by English and Welsh shire counties to push for better services on the primary route network has been welcomed by the transport industry's two main trade associations.
The Association of County Councils is establishing a team to generate and professionally orchestrate support from all road users and will then meet Government Ministers Liter this year to press for action.
The team will also look at how to finance the better rest and refreshment facilities, but an early suggestion from the ACC transport and planning committee that a levy on Road Haulage Association and Freight Transport Association members could raise some finance, has been flatly turned down.
"Certainly not," the ETA said last week. "Such service areas will have to run on a commercial basis, with demand and commercial viability coming together," it told CM.
The RHA has also ruled out such a levy. Operators outside trade associations would remain unlevied, while it is the job of Government and local authorities to provide services, it says.
But they have both welcomed the ACC's attempt to collate evidence and support for long-awaited road-side improvements.
The ACC's team is to build on a report it has received from county councils and Scottish regional councils that recommends changes in the present arrangements governing the provision and regulations of highway service facilities.
The report says that the aim should be to have stopping facilities f'or commercial vehicles on the primary route network at intervals of 30 minutes' driving time.
At the same time, it says that thc Department of Transport and motorway service area operators should be encouraged to support the provision of overnight facilities at all motorway service areas for commercial vehicle drivers.