Last ports weigh
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• Weighbridges are to be installed at Ramsgate and Immingham, which are the last two major ferry ports without them, junior transport minister Peter Bottomley told the House of Commons last week.
Bottomley told MPs that consultations are being held with selected port authorities about testing automatic equipment for weighing lorries entering the country.
His announcement followed a question from backbencher Sydney Chapman about the percentage of HGVs entering the country overloaded. Bottomley said that a series of surveys between 1980 and 1986 had shown that 20% of foreign lorries were overloaded by more than 5%: this figure contrasts with the overall figure of 24%. Chapman and other MPs called for tougher penalties to discourage foreign trucks entering the country overweight. Chapman said that magistrates should be encouraged to impose the maximum £200 fine.
Former Labour shadow transport secretary Gwynneth Dunwoody suggested that the police were not taking action because they knew that drivers leaving the country did not return for prosecution.
Bottomley pointed out that overloaded vehicles were banned from moving until the load was adjusted. Backbencher Jonathan Sayeed suggested that part of the cargo of overweight lorries should be seized and held until any fines were paid.
Labour spokesman Tony Lloyd urged the Government to do more to make it virtually impossible for lorries to risk life at sea by coming to Britain overloaded, as had happened with the Herald of Free Enterprise. Bottomley replied that this could be covered by the talks now going on about the automatic weighing equipment.
Labour backbencher Paul Flynn said that even with the 50% increase in the weighing of lorries at ports, only 1.5% of all the lorry movements inwards and outwards from Britain would be subject to weight checks. It was time the government stopped being permissive and started getting tough, he said, in view of the damage caused by lorries to the road System.
Bottomley said he would bear that in mind when he was fixing the transport supplementary grant for 1989/90.