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THE SAME OLD SONG

24th September 1998
Page 8
Page 8, 24th September 1998 — THE SAME OLD SONG
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords : Taxation, Excise, Customs, Betts

Reading the comments in the Traffic Commissioners' latest annual report is like watching that infamous newsreel of the Hindenburg crashing in flames—It's all so depressingly familiar. How can the TCs still be kept in the dark about the activities of their ocal hauliers? It's ridiculous that Senior TC Mike Betts should have to say: "Customs and Excise and the Benefits Agency now give me no information, apparently due to the Data Protection Act. This seems ludicrous, particularly in view of the number of operators who are known to cheat by using red diesel." Ludicrous? It's disastrous! Betts isn't the only one desperate for information. The t Eastern TC finds at: "Customs 'policy is not to disclose information" on red diesel offences, adding: "The Department should challenge this." Challenge it? The Department of Transport should go ballistic over it! Let's hope no-one tips off the national newspapers to this fiasco: we'd wager that it would cause quite a stink. And Western area TC Chris Heaps really shouldn't have to call for a statutory obligation to be placed on the courts, Customs and Excise, the DSS and Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all to inform him immediately when one of his flock strays. "In the interests of its safety I believe that the public is entitled to assume that I will receive such co-operation," he says. In the interests of actually allowing the TC s to do a decent job we believe it too. But the real clinch er is Betts' comment: "Commissioners have considered for several years that the field force of the Vehicle Inspectorate has been cut back too far because of inadequate funding..." Surprise, surprise. What this is all about is commitment. And until the DOT can demonstrate some real commitment to road transport enforcement, nothing will change. People who fail to learn the lesson of history are doomed to repeat it.


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