FTA tackles lony ban
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The Freight Transport Association is preparing to challenge the London lorry ban's constraints in the courts, it was revealed this week.
The FTA is investigating whether legal action is possible over the way exemption permit applications are now being dealt with by the London Residuary Body (LRB).
(The LRB has temporarily taken on the administration of the night and weekend ban for lorries over 16.5 tonnes, since the Greater London Council's abolition on March 31.) The LRB insists that operators must promise to fit vehicle quietening equipment, such as hush-kits and brake silencers, before being allowed a permit, says the FTA.
With the GLC's administration, operators only had to -consider" to fit sound qui
etening equipment, it states.
When the LRB was questioned by CM it said that it was "Not entirely true" that operators were having to agree to fit the equipment. It refused to discuss the subject further.
But the FTA is considering a challenge on two grounds. First, it says that no authority can legally enforce noise limits which are more stringent than EEC levels, and second, it says that the ground rules for applying for a permit seem to have changed.
If they have, the FTA's main difficulty is finding who to challenge. The LRB is just a temporary caretaker administration, until the London Boroughs decide on the ban's future, and it says that it is just applying the rules it inherited from the GLC.
The news of the FTA's campaign follows hard on the Government's High Court victory last week which ruled that the lorry ban does not cover the 104km (65 miles) of roads Thanked after the GLC's abolition.
Richmond Borough had maintained that the newly trunked roads were still covered by the ban, although the Department of Transport had put up ban exempt signs on them.
Following its defeat, Richmond is deciding whether to appeal.
Judge Neil Lawson said that he reached his conclusion with regret. "The vehicle ban was an important environmental matter swept away as a result of one sub-paragraph," he said.