Quarry routes to leave council control
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• Local authorities are to lose control over truck routes into quarries, mines and dumps as the current regulations are replaced by "gentlemen's agreements". Confirmation of the change will come next month when the Department of Environment makes clear that planners cannot interfere with the movement of a vehicle on a public road if its vehicle excise duty is paid. Only voluntary agreements with site operators over routes between waste sites, quarries and mines will be acceptable. These agreements could include voluntary restrictions on certain roads and at certain times. Until the DOE's intervention last year planners and site owners had believed that vehicle routeing could be legally tied to planning agreements. Some 3,000 routeing agreements exist between planners and site operators in the UK. The DOE decision means that none of them is legally binding. Nanners expect that local public pressure will encourage site operators to continue to operate sensibly_