Weights 1 99pc certain ' this wee
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NSPORT SECRETARY David Howell was "99 per cent certain" nnounce his plans for a 38-tonne weight limit on Thursday this k. ALAN MILLAR and MIKE RUTHERFORD report.
; CM closed for press on .sday, normaly reliable. -ces indicated that Thursday the most likely date for the Duncement and that, as has I been accepted, the propofor 34 and 40-tonne lorries 3 been abandoned to ape Mr Howell's Conservative cbench opponents.
r Howell's announcement les 11 months after he pubBd his much more generous te Paper on lorries, people the environment, and 23 iths after the Armitage Re: recommending a package hanges including weights inises of up to 44 tonnes was fished. His decision to go ad with the weights increase ies with full Cabinet backing. deed, Freight Transport Asation director general Hugh :herstone revealed last week.
Prime Minister Margaret tcher gave her support to the vier lorry as recently as Octo15.
r Howell has been stepping the, momentum for his anncement, particularly since ;aye his broad hint of a go id after the Conservative V conference in Brighton last ith, and he was in the busi; of dropping broad, but imise hints when he visited the or Show last week.
an informal briefing at the w, he said: "I hope to put re Parliament controls on as including the maximum 3hts very soon indeed. The ernment believes that a full cage is the right approach. ghts are only part of this." ut he would not commit him then to saying whether ry soon indeed" meant days, eks, or months, When ised, he said "shortly".
did say, however, that -e is unlikely to be any further sultation with industry on ghts.
arlier last week, Transport Jer Secretary Reginald Eyre ined a warehouse and mainance workshop for Inter City cks at Ashford, in Kent, and mised an early weights anincement Our regulations on lorry weights are completely out of date. They force our industry to run lorries partly empty, pushing up costs and making it that much harder to compete with Europe," he said.
"Haulage firms need to know what our regulations will be so that they can plan their purchase of lorries and trailers. Ordersand jobs are at stake in British truck and trailer manufacturing companies. Allowing lorries to run with fuller payloads would also be good for the environment because fuller lorries will mean fewer lorry journeys," he added.
The Government has also accepted the case for increasing the 40mph speed limit on derestricted trunk dual carriageways to 50mph, and Mr Featherstone said that Under Secretary Lynda Chalker said on October 20 that legislation will be brought forward "in due course".