M6 recovery costs /5,000
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Owen's Transport, the Holyhead-based firm whose truck overturned just off the M6 two weeks ago, had to pay almost £5,000 to have it recovered. Last week we reported on an accident blackspot just off the M6 northbound at J34 where trucks have turned over near the traffic lights, apparently due to an extreme camber in the road.
The £4,681 cost of the recovery by Board mans Garages only became clear after owner Harry Owen read a story in the same issue highlighting the high costs of recoveries carried out under police instruction. "I would have expected to pay half that amount," says Owen. "They are licensed by the police so they think they can charge anything they want. We had eight hours in which to organise our own recovery people but the police didn't give us the opportunity to do this."
Boardrrians Garages defends its policy, saying that the charges are linked to the need for 24-hour availability, as required by the police contract. "We have set charges for each piece of equipment per hour" says operations director Liz Perry. "The work was done out of hours and there were quite a few men out on the job as well."
Lancashire police confirm that they run a recovery rota system.