FTA to fight York ban
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• A move by York City Council to extend the city's lorry ban will be challenged by the Freight Transport Association if a public inquiry is ordered in the New Year.
At present the ban operates in main shopping streets from 11.30am to 4pm and allows reasonable access for deliveries. Now the council wants to widen the ban by including many more streets in the prohibited area and increasing the period when vehicles are not allowed to 10am-5pm.
The FTA's planning and traffic services manager, Don McIntyre, says that pedestrianisation of town centres must be balanced by proper facilities for the delivery of goods to the shops. Besides York, the association is also concerned about schemes proposed in Stirling, Dumfries, Worksop and Guildford.
"Too many councils are prepared to ban delivery vehicles from pedestrianised streets even where there is no rear access," says McIntyre. "This has the cumulative effect of successive town centres becoming no-go areas for deliveries after 10am.
"Companies are having to put extra lorries on the road to get their deliveries completed before the "barriers" come down. This is an inefficient use of transport and makes no sense environmentally."