Stand up and fight
Page 18

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IF LONDON introduces a lorry ban, then other local authorities will be falling over themselves to follow suit. The industry must therefore stand up and fight for the interests of transport, otherwise no one else will, said Freight Transport Association director-general Hugh Featherstone at a meeting of the Devon and Cornwall divisions.
Speaking about the Greater London Council's threatened night-time and weekend ban, Mr Featherstone said that reducing the impact of the lorry on the ordinary citizen was politically popular.
"The Wood Report on London lorry bans and what the GLC does about it, is of crucial significance," he said. "It represents a watershed just as important in its way as the 1968 Transport Act, or EEC drivers hours and tachographs, or, in a different way, the whole motorway programme."
He pointed out that there was no environmental benefit to be gained from global lorry bans — a fact highlighted by the Wood Report itself. The GLC has heeded this message and its decision in September to study night-time and weekend bans has made the danger of all-day bans recede, but not disappear, he said.
Night-time and weekend bans present enough danger in themselves, he said. Such bans would be on all lorries inside the M25 London orbital motoway, including those delivering, as well as through traffic.