Ban could cost you even if it never comes
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by Karen Miles
OPERATORS could face bills of around £400 — whether or not the Greater London Council's lorry ban comes into effect on December 16.
Following the GLC's High Court victory for the ban last week, and the Complication of • the Government's immediate decision to appeal (CM July 20), operators stand the risk of bearing the cost either way.
The appeal is unlikely to be heard before October, and by then the GLC expects many operators who wish to run vehicles over 16.5 tonnes in London at night and weekends will have fitted 000 "hush-kits" to their vehicles.
A GLC spokesman told CM that it recognised the capital expenditure involved and there were possibilities of operators phasing it in over 18 months.
But he said that if operators did not get in touch with the GLC until around November, many would fail to get exemption permits in time for the ban's planned December implementation.
But if the Department of Transport wins the appeal then operators will have geared up for a ban that may never occur. "If the appeal is won, operators will have incurred abortive expenditure for a scheme that's not coming off' the GLC stated.
The GLC is pushing ahead with plans for the ban's implementation on December '16_ It is warning that operators will face fines of up to £400 if they fail to organise an exemption with the GLC — which will often be obtained through fitting a hushkit — and contravene the ban.
Meanwhile the Freight Transport Association, Road Haulage Association, Confederation of British Industry and the London Chamber of Commerce meet Transport Minister Lynda Chalker next Tuesday.
They will push for the Government to stop the ban by any method, even though the appeal is already lodged, The RHA's director-general Freddie Plaskett has also written to Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley asking him to use his powers to Stop the GLC.
Mr Plaskett told CM that there was a possibility that Mr Ridley could use powers to revoke the ban, now that the traffic order had been made.
But at the moment, both the RHA and the FTA are still advising their members not o contact the GLC. Operators should wait for further clarification of the situation, they said.
Until Tuesday this week, the GLC had received around 100 phone calls from operators asking for application forms for exemption permits. The forms will he available from Monday nextweek, when the GLC expects to hear from the first of around 5,000 firms with a total of 25,000 lorries..
• The GLC has denied that the ban will cause serious overnight queueing of lorries on the GLC boundary before 7am when the ban comes off.
GLC transport 'committee chair Dave Wetzel said: "Thorough research with over 300 companies who operate vehicles in London shows that the vast majority will apply for exemption permits. There will be no noticeable effects on the traffi c flows in the early morning,"