Lorry ban condemned
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THE GREATER London Council's plans for a night and weekend lorry ban (see p6) would be disastrous and unworkable, Transport Minister Lynda Chalker said this week.
She was speaking after a hastily arranged meeting with transport and industry groups on Tuesday, just before we closed for press, and urged the GLC at very least to hold a public inquiry before pressing ahead with its plans.
Mrs Chalker dismissed the GLC plans as unworkable, and said they would be bad for Londoners, for business, for shops, and jobs.
She said that GLC claims that hush-kits could be fitted to lorries at "miraculously inexpensive cost" ignored the fact that this would cut across national and international legislation. It was right, she said, for lorries to be made quieter, but it could not be achieved overnight.
But the core of the ban proposals came in for Mrs Chalker's greatest damnation. They would be unworkable, and would leave hauliers at the mercy of bureaucratic whim as to whether their vehicles could gain access to the restricted area.
The ban would be difficult to enforce, and would only remove 2,000 lorries from London's roads, she added.