Lorry bans increasing
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LORRY BANS are still increasing, according to a Freight Transpon Association survey which has revealed a particularly sharp increas€ in the number of amenity restrictions.
While the FTA was optimistic earlier this year that the introduction of new bans was tailing off (CM, March 7), the first six months of this year revealed another 133 bans in England and Wales, more than half the number for the whole of last year.
Bans on vehicles over three tons unladen, for amenity reasons, totalled 85, against 153 for the whole of 1980. Eighteen width restrictions were introduced on residential roads (31 last year), and 11 weight or width limits were imposed on weak bridges, against 27 last year.
Eleven access bans, six of them for the whole week — in Leatherhead, Ramsgate, Kidderminster, Chatham, Blackburn, and Exeter — were introduced, and this was only two short of the total number for all of 1980.
There also were two bans on substandard roads fou overnight parking bans, and tw( height and length limits im posed. The parking bans affec Portsmouth, Nazeing, Ealing and Oldham.
By contrast, only four bans weight restrictions in Ayr, Ork ney, and Culross (Fife), and Saturday access ban in Falkirk were introduced in Scotland ir the first half of this year, and thl FTA says it believes this is due tc there being no alternative route) for lorries to use.
FTA traffic officer Don Mcln tyre told CM that the Associatior is disappointed that only on th( A58 in West Yorkshire and ir Orkney have the local authoritiel adopted gross vehicle weigh limits, rather than unlader weights.
Regulations authorising thE compulsory use of gvw signs which will have to he phased ir on all lorry control schemes ove the next ten years, are expectec this month, in time for imple mentation from September, bu few local authorities have showr any interest in introducing then' in advance of the change in law.