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Associations 'should take lead' on protests
Page 6
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By Steve Hobson AN OVERWHELMING majority of operators who responded to last week's Transaction fuel protest poll in CM and sister magazine Motor Transport believe trade associations should take the lead in organising public demos against high fuel prices (see panel). But when it came to pledging support for the May 27 London demo, the results were less clear-cut, with fewer than half saying they would be sending people or vehicles.
Road Haulage Association (RHA) chief executive Roger King reacted angrily to the survey, branding it "unacceptable" and insisting "members, not a poll" would decide RHA policy. "The board is meeting next Thursday [29 May] to decide our position," King says. "We will consult our members and the board will decide if it wants the RHA name to be associated with Transaction."
According to RHA board member and Framptons Transport Services director Richard Fry, the last meeting was split, with a minority in favour of direct action. The next meeting will also consider organising a mass lobby of Parliament to support an amendment to the Finance Bill introducing a fuel duty regulator. Proposed by Scottish National Party MP Stewart Hosie, the regulator would trigger cuts in fuel duties as oil prices rise.
"We will be supporting it to the utmost," says King. "I would say we are the only body that has reached inside Parliament with a positive course of action."
Freight Transport Association FTA) chief economist Simon Chapman reiterates the FTA's position on public protests: "We do not take part in direct action."
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