The great clean-up act
Page 3
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Parking, or the tack of it, is an issue that continues to bedevit the industry.
The absence of decent, relatively cheap, secure truckstops in this country is welt-documented, as are the problems it causes, both in terms of the safety of drivers and the anti-social behaviour caused by drivers. While parking provision on the Continent is less perfect than we'd first imagined, it still puts the UK to shame. So we hold out hope for the EU's 'Nun flag' scheme, launched this week in Belgium [see page 101.
Remember when a similar scheme was launched for beaches? Not for nothing was the UK known as the dirty man of Europe. Since then we have improved massively and can boast some of the cleanest beaches anmhere. Put it down to a mixture of embarrassment and economic imperative that made us raise our game.
Hopefully some of 7hat same pressure will now come to bear via the EUS scheme — now handed over to the industry to run. But to make this happen, we need help from central government.
The promise to give Local communities more power is not a helpful starting point. It will simply result in more applications to run truckstops being blocked or thrown out.
We need a simplified planning process to get them off the ground and some sort of financial incentive to bring existing stock up to scratch.
In the meantime, we hope that those truckstops in the UK that have gained the blue hag prosper from their hard work, serving as an example to the rest. Otherwise this is just another missed opportunity.
Dominic Perry /00"00., 400.0"NiNt„