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Lorry ban: too low, too soon says FTA
THE PROPOSED 7.5-tonne weight limit on lorries using roads in the Enfield and Barnet areas of North London is too low, and is being introduced too soon, Freight Transport Association traffic officer Don McIntyre has told the Greater London Council.
In a letter to GLC controller of transportation and development Audrey Lees, Mr McIntyre said the 7.5 tonne-limit will catch the wrong, comparatively innocuous vehicles. He said the problem in Barnet and Enfield was with multi-axle rigid and articulated lorries up to 32.5 tonnes.
"A 7.5-tonne demarcation will of course catch very much smaller vehicles, and indeed implies that the local bread van has been equated with 'juggernauts'," he said.
He said that, as most vehicles below 16.5 tonnes gross weight — the limit which FTA would prefer to see for the area — are used for short-distance work, they will either continue to have access to the restricted area, or will be diverted expensively.
Companies based directly outside the area will have particular problems, according to Mr McIntyre, who said they will be diverted around the edge of the restricted area just to get to the other side of it.
"We need hardly emphasise that trade and industry is currently.under severe strain as a
result of the poor economic situation, and we would have hoped that this would have merited special consideration," Mr McIntyre warned Miss Lees.
And echoing Metropolitan Police doubts about their ability to enforce the ban(CM March 21), Mr McIntyre said it would be much easier to make a 16.5tonne ban stick, as no vehicles with, over two axles would be able to enter the area.
Mr McIntyre also called into question the need for such a ban, once the A1/A10 section of the M25 London orbital route is opened. "There seems little doubt that most drivers affected will need little persuasion to use the new section of M25 as soon as it is available."
He warned that GLC plans to conduct "before and after" effects of the ban will be distorted if the ban is introduced concurrently with the opening of the new M25 stretch.
A Road Haulage Association spokesman this week said: "The GLC is clearly prejudicing the issue by announcing the ban before the motorway is opened."