Steel road ove is on the rocks
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• British Steel's plan to transfer 9,000 tonnes of limestone a week from rail to road in a picturesque part of Yorkshire is floundering following the jailing of the haulier tipped to win the contract and public uproar over the move.
Management at British Steel's Teesside plant have quietly postponed their controversial decision to switch to road until October — and local environmentalists are blaming the change on the court appearance of local haulier AW Biker.
The North Yorkshire company, which trades as Bikers of Bedale, was last week fined £27,000 and the managing director Anthony Biker was jailed for nine months because of falsification of tachograph offences (see page 12).
Observers in the area believe Bikers was the certain winner of the 60 lorry loads a day contract between a quarry at Redmire and British Steel's Redcar plant.
It is thought that British Steel put the work out to tender when British Rail wanted a 3% increase in rates. The manufacturer said in February it had chosen road for the route because it was cheaper.
British Steel had already been under heavy fire from North Yorkshire County Council, local MPs and environmental groups who were opposed to the rail-toroad swap on the 35km route.
Railway pressure group Wensleydale Railway Association is delighted by the blow for road transport. Chairman Stan Abbot says: "It was never a public relations success but it never made sense to me that British Steel should defer its decision once it was made.
"It doesn't add up," he says. "My feeling is once the severity of the charges were known, British Steel couldn't go on with it."
Abbot adds: "Bikers said they were going to do three return trips a day and we thought it would have been slightly difficult within the speed limit."
Bikers transport manager Tim Peacock has described the nine-month sentence as "far too severe" and "utterly rediculous". He refuses to comment further on the issue.
Company boss Anthony Biker and the company pleaded not guilty at the court hearing at Teesside Crown Court.
Biker's 0-licence is now likely to be reviewed by North East Licensing Authority Frederick Whalley.
Prison sentences affect a haulier's good repute which is one of the conditions of a licence.
British Steel's proposal to move the limestone on to the road had come under fire from both Labour and Conservative politicians.