Plan will cost
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£350m FTA ROAD freight costs will be increased by E350m if proposals in the Green Paper on Transport Policy get the go-ahead, the Freight Transport Association claimed this week.
In a seven-line statement, the FTA said that the consultative document had "gone off the rails."
By the Government's own admission the introduction of a social tax would not shift traffic to rail, would provide no environmental improvement but would put prices up in the shops.
Taxation apart, the FTA welcomed the generally prac tical and non-doctrinaire approach of the Green Paper. The PTA's North Scotland division agm was told by deputy director-general Mr Garry Turvey that the document had "given official recognition to basic facts of transport life.
"Road versus rail has long been a barren argument. There is no escaping the fact that roads will continue to carry the lion's share of the nation's freight and the Government are now clearly committed to that view," he said.
Mr Turvey added that at the time of Barbara Castle's Transport Bill eight years ago, transport men had said the plans for special authorisation and restrictions on road freight of more than 100 miles were a "non-starter."
Now Scottish hauliers were greatly relieved to see the Government had come round to the same view.