No' to docks depot
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nvironment Secretary neth Baker has turned n a Greater London icil proposal to build an ss road into a site being :loped as a dockland ;ht complex.
GLC wanted to spend ),000 on the access road North Thames Gas Board at Beckton, in the Royal ks, ready for the London nigh of Newham to lop it into a road haulage complex which would opened early next year. overnment approval was led for the scheme, iuse it is for work being ied out following last kend's abolition of the ;. Baker turned it down on basis that he is "not convinced that it would be expedient" to proceed now.
The GLC's industry and employment committee chair, Michael Ward, commented last week that Baker's move was "sad and petty" and "a great shame".
GLC officers, who say the scheme would have protected haulage jobs in Newham, have spent about 18 months working on the project, the only freight complex currently being developed by public authorities in London.
Ward said: ''The chances of anyone continuing initiatives on freight complexes are remote. That kind of investment needs a public sector initiative, and only central government is left to fund such a programme." Ward was speaking last week when the GLC published a memorial to its transport policies in the form of an industrial strategy report on the way it would like freight and roads policy lo develop in London after its abolition.
Freight complexes, like that planned at Beckton and once planned for Neasden in North London, would be developed along with long-distance vehicles using swap-body systems to integrate with local distribution systems.
Better facilities would be provided for drivers, with local authority-supported truckstops, and the creation of a special operating regime using swap body systems would stabilise employment conditions.
It would extend the GLC's night and weekend lorry ban, initially to control vehicles over 7.5 tonnes Milk', eventually over 3.5 tonnes, and a daytime control system would be added.
Not only is the GLC bequeathing its idea of a smaller, more manoeuvrable and quieter "London lorry" to its successors, but it is also proposing that councils should establish a municipal distribution service to supply retailers.
Ward says: "Only a mixture of tightened regulation and public-sector-led investment in freight facilities can produce a freight industry efficiently adapted to the unique environment of London."