Govt warns GLC on Wood
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THE GOVERNMENT will step in to stop the Greater London Council imposing a blanket ban on heavy lorries.
Transport Minister Lynda Chalker told Tory MP John Maples that if the implementation of the Wood Report or similar proposals were to inflict irreparable damage, the Government would not hesitate to step in.
"I hope that will not be necessary and that the GLC will see that there is no point in making a proposal for one part of London which adversely affects a neighbouring part."
Mrs Chalker made plain her continued support for the idea of the North London lorry box and criticised the GLC's failure to implement it.
"I look for commonsense solutions — not blanket bans — and not simply to pass the problem of lorry control from one borough to the next."
Mrs Chalker told MPs that the new arrangements for dealing with lorry routes needed to cater for the widespread importance and impact of freight movement in and around London.
And she insisted that the new proposals for dealing with roads would be more efficient than the existing three-tier arrangement.
Mrs Chalker's comments echo those which the Department of Transport aired in a letter to Charles Lawrence, Wincanton Transport's managing director.
Mr Lawrence had written to the Environment, Employment, and Foreign Secretaries, highlighting what he saw as the danger of widespread lorry bans in London.