£1 a night for lorry parking?
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by John Darker • The Greater London Council is supervising a pilot study of all-night parking of commercial vehicles in Islington. Widespread public concern over the delay in dealing with the vexed question of lorries parked overnight in residential streets was referred to by Mr. H. A. Rossi (Tory MP for Hornsey) in a recent Parliamentary question to the Minister of Transport.
No significance should be attached to the selection of Islington as the location for the pilot survey. When the GLC's policy is defined it will cover a much wider area.
National Car Parks, which operates six lorry parks in central London with perhaps 1,200 parking places, now charges 10s. per night parking fee for lorries irrespective of size. It is understood that a Home Office committee is currently examining the problem of secure parking of commercial vehicles carrying vulnerable loads. There are reports that a parking fee of £1 per 12 hours, or overnight, has been put forward as a reasonable sum to cover the expenses of providing a supervised lorry park.
My inquiries suggest that the expression "guarded lorry park" is not likely to be looked upon favourably by any commercial provider of parks. The larger the parking area, the more difficult the problem of supervision. To provide sufficient staff to avoid all risk of theft and pilferage would be so expensive that very few road hauliers would choose to pay the price.
Yet it is apparent that the GLC—and other local authorities—face increasing pressure from ratepayers to clear the streets of night-parking lorries. Insurance companies, too, are likely to be increasingly selective in providing goods-in-transit cover to hauliers. When the transport managers' licences become mandatory, overnight parking responsibilities will be important.