1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144 
Designated routes if weights rise
Page 29
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
— Mr Peyton hammers the message home
from our political correspondent
• The Minister for Transport Industries, Mr John Peyton, is losing no opportunity to make clear the Government's intention to restrict commercial vehicles to certain designated routes if they take advantage of any higher axle loadings permitted by Common Market legislation.
Speaking at the opening of the new Freightflow International inland clearance depot at Lenham, on A20, last week, he said that while there was no doubt about the importance of road haulage there was equally little doubt about its attendant problems. He added: -The vehicle itself — its overall weight, dimensions and particularly axle loadings — must be kept within definite limits if unacceptable damage to our roads and bridges and historic buildings is to be avoided.
"The Common Market Countries have recently concerted some proposals. Consultations with ourselves and other acceding countries will follow. If weights, and particularly axle loads, are going up by however little, the arguments, already cogent, for restricting vehicles to routes which can reasonably accommodate them become unanswerable."
Modern communities depended upon their transport industries to an extent which was often overlooked, said the Minister, but the best guarantees of the lorry's future lay not in its undoubted efficiency and flexibility of operation but in the development of policies which paid heed to the interests of both the industry and the community at large. "These policies will gain conviction only if they have their roots in the acknowledgement by hauliers that public concern is to be respected."
Diesel smoke is worst Another Government spokesman, a junior DoE Minister, took up the environmental aspect of road transport later in the week. Mr Keith Speed MP, Parliamentary UnderSecretary, told members and guests at the annual lunch of the Electric Vehicle Association that his Department was keen to see conventional vehicles made more "civilized". Diesel smoke was, he said, probably the most offensive form of vehicle pollution.
Speaking approvingly of the quietness and freedom from fumes of electric vehicles, he commended the Leeds pedestrian precinct electric bus as an important start in making city centres more civilized.
The EVA chairman, Mr Alan Duncan, took up this theme, suggesting that to the EVA's present slogan "Evolution without pollution" should be added the message that electric vehicles were "the civilized machines".