All pull together
Page 35
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AS AN operator and a driver of a heavy goods vehicle, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Alan Swann of the New Archway Road Residents' Association for his thanks to us in the road transport industry, for using the M25 instead of the Archway Road (CM, March 10). I am sure this is much appreciated by us all.
However, I wonder if his thanks are not misdirected. You see, Mr Swann, the thought of driving any vehicle, let alone a heavy goods vehicle, down Archway Road, was never a pleasing one. Any driver making deliveries to Kent or making his way to Tilbury, or to anywhere that would mean using this route would probably wish he was travelling north instead.
The change to using the M25 was automatic. My journey times seem to have been cut considerably. I am glad that the people of Archway Road consider it to be a much nicer place to live; no doubt it is. I feel that their thanks and the thanks of other areas relieved by the M25, and the thanks of the road transport industry should go jointlyto those in Parliament who made that road possible, and then, when we've done that, we should go back, jointly, and say we want more.
It is no good the environmentalist sitting on one side of the fence, saying, "Ban the juggernaught", and the road transport industry sitting on the other side saying, "No, give us better roads."
Basically, we all want the same thing. People want (as Mr. Swann puts it) better places to live — don't forget lorry drivers also live and have children to bring up.
The road transport industry wants to be able to do its job more efficiently, more economically and more freely. The only way to achieve these