'I actually like lorries' says GLC's Nick Lester
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RENOWN ED anti-lorry campaigner Nick Lester from the GLC Public Transport Campaign Unit entered the lions' den armed only with a set of slides and a lorry noise sound track.
lie immediately denied that he is antilorry: "I actually like lorries. What I object to is the use of the heaviest lorries in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Lester contended that the road freight industry just does not appreciate the environmental problems that the lorry brings. "Attempts to diminish the problem are wrong. It is hiding your heads in the sand."
The main problem, according to Lester, is noise, although vibration, pollution and the sheer size of vehicles all contribute. Ile went on to say that lorry operators have a reputation for "digging in their heels" — they did it against tachographs and sideguards.
Responding to industry calls for the segregation of lorries onto their own purpose-built roads, Lester said: "Forget them. They are just not on. It is the lorry that has to change to suit the towns and people."
lie put forward alternative views of the future. The first was to continue as we are, in which case he foresees growing mistrust of the industry and an increase in the number of lorry restraints.
The other is for operators to compromise and reduce the gap between their needs and the needs of the public.
John (iuttridge, Freight Transport Association's southern regional controller, sprang to the defence of the industry. He denied that it fights against everything, pointing out that the PTA examines 2,(/0) traffic regulation orders each year but objects to only a
handful.
Barry Prior of Wedlake Saint contrasted the GLC low bus-fares policy with its forthcoming lorry ban and said that it amounted to discrimination against goods.
Lester answered by saying the lorry ban will only keep out those lorries going through London and which would have no real business there.
Bob Carmichael of Thameside Truck Centre told Lester that he found it "personally offensive that you project tranpsort in the way you have done," adding that Lester is probably "sincere but naive". He believes that some of the measures put forward in the GLC lorry ban will put some operators out of business.
Replied Lester: "Nobody is going out to force people out of business." He said there are simple, low-cost ways of obtaining the lorry ban exemptions.