No joy from Alliance
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• Tougher restrictions on vehicle exhaust emissions, tougher enforcement and a pledge to put an end to "lorry rat runs" are among transport strategies in a new SDP Liberal/Alliance policy document entitled The Time Has Come.
Just three weeks after the Labour Party published its Fresh Directions transport proposals (CM, February 14), the Alliance claims: "Transport and environmental factors do not need to pull in opposite directions."
The Alliance claims its plans for greater investment in the country's infrastructure "would in particular allow for road improvements, ease traffic movements and also achieve better traffic management.
"Improved trunk roads and bypasses for towns and villages will enable us to designate a national heavy lorry network, which would then exclude lordes from residential areas and stop rat runs through our towns and cities."
If elected at the next election, the Alliance would also "encourage local authorities to impose lorry bans in residential aroas". Other proposals in the document include more enforcement of traffic law, legislation to decrease permitted hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions from both old and new vehicles and the phasing out of leaded petrol.
According to the Alliance, some long distance heavy freight could be shifted from road to rail or water, which
would be desirable on environmental grounds.
The Alliance's pledge to cut out heavy vehicles from unsuitable urban routes coincides with a report from the Movement for London pressure group which claims that heavy lorries and vans account for just 16% of London's traffic, while cars represent a massive 77%. PSVs account for just 1.5%.