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FTA backs plans for `Traffic Tsar'
Page 10
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II The Freight Transport Assodation has welcomed Transport Secretary Alistair Darling's plans to appoint a 'Traffic Tsar' to oversee traffic movement in the UK.
Speaking at the RAC Foundation Seminar, Motoring Towards 2050, Darting said that a traffic director could be appointed next year with direct responsibility for the monitoring of roadworks and the rephasing of the traffic lights and; eventually the tsar would be given legal powers.
FTA chief executive Richard Turner says this is an important step for the freight transport industry: "The outcome we now want from this new appointment is swift remedial action to ease congestion pinch points; better planning of roadworks: more effective clearing of accidents; and more real-time information to operators on road conditions.
"We also believe that a thorough review of night-time working restrictions is needed to remove the barriers to industry utilising network capacity when it is lightly used by other traffic," Turner adds.
A spokesman for the Department of Transport says that the idea has just been mooted but no final decision has been made about the details of the role.