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Transport handicapped by its own importance
Page 22
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TRANSPORT had always been handicapped by its own importance and so inevitably was kept in the political arena. This was the opinion of Mr L. A. Castleton, immediate past president of the Freight Transport Association, when he was speaking at the Association's East Riding divisional dinner in Hull last week.
Of recent years, Mr Castleton continued, politicians had tended to listen to the militant voice of the environmentalists and to recognize it as a force to be appeased at the expense of road transport. Of course, the environment had to be protected but transport was also regarded as vital and as necessary to this country's economic and social life as the blood circulation was to the human body, yet it was subjected to blood transfusions without any check that the right blood group was being used. Tourniquets, said Mr Castleton, were being applied regardless of the damage that might be done by such restrictions if they were left on too long.
As an example Mr Castleton cited the four separate cuts in the road programme for the year 1974/5, which he said, in the short term might achieve the intended saving of £300m, but it would not pave the way to economical revival and permit future growth.
In the Hull area, he said, although the M62/ M621 would, when completed next year, provide the seaport with an artery giving good access to the heart of the country, there were still vital missing links, especially in built-up areas which would adversely affect the environmental cause.
The politicians and planners, Mr Castleton concluded, might talk away until the cows came home about lorry routes, transhipment centres, and all the rest. But the fundamental fact remained that the only longterm solution was to get the through routed lorry away from the towns and villages through which it was compelled to travel.