Carts before horses
Page 9
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Transport operators are going to have to use all their influence with their local authorities and MPs if they hope to stem the trickle of bans on night parking of lorries before it becomes an irresistible flood. The Government has already said that it intends to toughen up the night parking regulations in the proposed Road Safety Bill, and this could be introduced later this year if Parliamentary time allows: but it will go before the Commons next Session at the latest because many of its provisions are closely tied to the new powers laid down in the Local Government Reform legislation.
Residential areas are no place for the wholesale parking of commercial vehicles but it is a practice which has grown up over the years, partly through lack of alternative facilities, and it is unreasonable to expect these vehicles to disappear suddenly at the wave of a town clerk's wand. Where are they supposed to disappear to? Tower Hamlets has been in the news for its experimental night parking ban, and the answer there seems to be that the displaced vehicles simply drift into another borough. This achieves nothing, except to annoy another set of residents, put the driver to extra trouble and remove at least the sense of security which he feels at having the lorry under his window. The arbitrary ban seems also to have upset the transport arrangements for early starts at Spitalfields Market, which lies within the area.
Provision of proper offstreet parking has to be phased with the ban on street parking. And the offstreet alternative, while it may not need over-elaborate security measures, must at least be controlled by a watchman. Pressing for fresh legislation to ban overnight lorry parking, the Tory MP for East Surrey, Mr William Clark, has suggested that car parks little used at night should be left open for lorries, but this seems to us likely to present thieves with ripe opportunities to choose their victims. If the industry really wants to see a reasonable solution to this problem, it could do worse than strike first with positive local proposals for offstreet overnight parking in each city and town.