Government ignores leas over fuel duty
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The Government has ignored 1.200 protesting hauliers and pledged to carry on raising fuel prices in line with its escalator policy. This emerged as hauliers, drivers and their supporters from all over the UK attended a
mass lobby of Parliament organised by the Road haulage Association and Trans-Action.
But even as the hauliers were marching round Parliament Square to meetings with their MPs, Transport Minister Dr John Reid was refusing to turn off the escalator.
Reid told the Freight Transport Association's annual conference that diesel duty will again rise by 6% above inflation in next week's Budget.
The Day
CM travelled up to London with 60 operators from Kent and Sussex, including a strong contingent from Trans-Actionother members converged on the capital from Shropshire and the Midlands, Trans-Action's Frank Stears said: "We shouldn't have to do this, but we've got to make people sit up and take notice of what's happening."
Trans-Action voluntary secretary Brenda Taylor, of John Taylor Transport in Ashford, was less than impressed by a meeting she'd had with local MP Derek Wyatt (Labour-Sittingbourne and Sheppey). "He was very short with us and virtually said that if it was down to him all freight would go by rail," she said. "We wasted our time. literally."
Stears agreed: "We had a more sympathetic response from Andrew Rowe, the conservative MP for Faversham and Mid-Kent, who also attended the meeting. If he hadn't have been there we'd have got up and walked up. He's backed us from day one."
Stears, who runs a fivevehicle fleet out of Faversham, is well aware of the problems of direct action, not least blockades. "If people think they won't get arrested then they're fooling themselves," he said, "They will get arrested. But providing all Trans-Action
members vote for it, we'll do it. I don't want to, but I can't be squeezed any more."
Trans-Action's Union-Jackemblazoned banners (supported by ERF) were particularly eye-catching, and the mood around Parliament Square and in central Hall was determined. But operators are in a dilemma over future action.
Trans-Action foundermember Chris London was pleased with the day but was left leaning towards more direct action: "What can we do? We tried it diplomatically— we've tried it all."
Stears added: "The day was what we hoped for," but he confirmed that further TransAction protests will include a cross-Channel trip to publicise the inequality of diesel prices and a post-Budget survey of hauliers to see what form of direct action would generate most support.