Hauliers hit at South Yorks subsidy plans
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SHEFFIELD hauliers have launched an attack on the transport policy of the South Yorkshire County Council and they are being backed by Tory councillors in the area.
This week Carbott Transport chief Roy Ibbotson told CM that the council policy could only hurt hauliers as more and more money is spent on subsidising free bus services at the expense of the road repairs necessary in the area.
Mr Ibbotson, who represented the Road Haulage Association when the area structure plan was under discussion, says that local authorities are disquieted that the burden of road repairs will fall on the ratepayers because the county cannot afford to meet its road repair commitments.
And he added that the examining body which had looked at the area structure plan under the chairmanship of J. M. Drinkwater QC had agreed with the hauliers.
"We think that there is a real possibility that the costs of subsidies to public transport could rise so high as to require a choice to be made between continuing other transport policies in the structure," says Mr Drinkwater's report on the plan.
Now the hauliers think that the point has been reached where the road building policy will start to suffer.
They want the council to give priority to a new allweather route south of M62.
Mr Ibbotson said that the M62 had been closed for several days last winter and for 14 days it had been impossible for vehicles to go from Sheffield to Manchester.
Hauliers also want the council to get priority for the building of the MI extension north of Leeds to join the Al at a point north of Harrogate and Ripon.
Now the hauliers have found allies in local Conservative councillors who are opposed to the Labour county council policy of free fares on public transport.
"Free fares are a socialist policy anyway," said Mr Ibbotson, "and it means that the council cannot meet the continuing requirements of the haulage industry.