EDITORIAL
Page 13
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The proposed ban on vehicles carrying or using LPG, due to be applied soon at the Mersey tunnel, should be withdrawn and the whole question of the dangers involved --in this tunnel and others -examined dispassionately. Certainly LPG is a potentially dangerous substance, but no more so than many other consignments which are allowed to pass, either freely or under escort. An emotional approach to the use or carriage of dangerous substances would result in large parts of industry and industrial transport being shut down — quite unnecessarily. The need is to examine the risks, with expert technical advice, and take all reasonable steps to minimize them.
It is expert technical evidence for the bans which seems singularly lacking. The transport operator associations have insisted that the DoE has no such expert testimony; neither the DoE nor the tunnel authorities appear to have material evidence to support the very low figure of 68 lb which has been set as the maximum amount of LPG which will be tolerated. Yet already there is talk of the GI ,C applying a figure of only half this amount in the Blackwall and Rotherhithe tunnels.
At a stroke, such narrowly defined bans will prohibit not only I.PG loads but also vehicles which — in commendable search for economy and lower pollution — have been converted to run on ITG; and, numerically far the largest group, refrigerated vans using propane to power the motors.
The arbitrary bans which the tunnel authorities wish to impose, and which the DoE seems reluctant to set aside or modify, are an example of the sort of treatment which freight transport can expect on other fronts now that local and county authorities have new powers — with which they may sometimes wish to impress the electorate. \ I.abour MP said last week that councils' vigorous use of their new powers could change the face of transport dramatically over the next 10 sears Road transport will need to use all its wits to avoid being saddled with harsh and unjustified new burdens.