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IALLENCIE
The race for London mayor has so far focused on the personalities fighting for top spot. But whoever is selected for election and whoever is then voted to the post will have some serious strategic problems with haulage and distribution in the capital. Pat Hagan reports.
VI hat image springs to mind when you hear the word "mayor"? That of a popular but politically impotent local figurehead whose main task seems to be getting photographed at local functions—or a powerful and influential policy-maker who can drive through changes affecting most aspects of your life?
For many parts of Britain, the first description remains closest. But in London, the role of nominal leader with no true power is about to give way to a new type of mayor—backed by a new type of authority—who will have a mandate to get things done.
And one of the biggest priorities will be transport. While uncertainty remains over who the new mayor will be and what specific policies they will pursue, there is one certainty for hauliers in and around London—things will not stay the same.
The government set out its policies for London in the white paper A Mayor and
Assembly for London. This details the new arrangements for governing London and the extent to which the new powers would be able to take control in key areas such as transport and the environment.
At the centre of the proposals will be the Greater London Authority, consisting of the Mayor of London and a new London Assembly. The mayor's job will be to decide policy and strategic direction for the G LA, while the London Assembly will be responsible for scrutinising the mayor's activities and approving budgets and strategies.
In order to ensure transport issues are addressed property, a new body—Transport for London—will be established which will be answerable to the mayor. Transport for London will soak up many existing transport bodies but will also take over the duties of groups such as the Highways Agency, which currently has responsibility for trunk roads.
Inevitably the complicated task of building an efficient public transport system for London will top the new authority's agenda. But the white paper makes it clear that powers will be granted to implement far-reaching changes in the area of freight transport.
It states: "The mayor's transport responsibilities will cover the move ment of people and goods. The management of freight traffic within London will be an important issue within the integrated transport strategy for London.
"There is some scope for transferring freight from road to rail or river. However, in a city like London, the majority of goods movements are local deliveries for which there is no real alternative to road."
Commercial sector
These words suggest the government is prepared to acknowledge road transport is vital to the success of the capital's commercial sector. The white paper goes on to speculate on how the new mayor and the GLA could amend the only truly London-wide initiative on road transport—the night-time lorry ban introduced by the former Greater London Council.
"Properly implemented, this ban could reconcile the interests of businesses and residents by focusing night-time movements on routes which avoid residential areas.
However, such a ban can only be one element in a broader strategy to manage goods vehicle movements.
"The GLA will need, in consultation with the boroughs and with London's business community, to consider other lorry management initiatives—such as minimising deliveries during peak hours to facilitate lorry movements in off-peak periods and to promote the use of quieter and less polluting vehicles."
It is this delicate balance between ensuring the uninterrupted flow of road freight and reducing damage to London's environment that looks likely to be one of the mayor's toughest tasks.
Part of the new brief is to bring about improvements to the environment in areas such as air quality and noise pollution. According to the government, in taking responsibility for environment and transport, the mayor and GLA will be "particularly well placed" to deliver improvements in air quality.
The issue of how best to manage road transport is bound to fan fiery debate. Some observers argue that much of London's daytime congestion could be eased if the night ban was scrapped. In theory, some commercial organisations could handle a significant proportion of their deliveries at night, taking trucks off congested roads in the day.
Leading trade bodies have been busy lobbying the main candidates in the race for mayor in a bid to ensure freight transport gets a fair hearing. The Freight Transport Association has been pressing home the message that the debate on public transport services must not be allowed to overshadow the issue of the flow of commercial goods.
"There is a danger that some of the quickfix passenger solutions that might be proposed could be negative from the freight transport point of view," says FTA London and South-Fast regional director fohn Guftridge.
Food deliveries
"A lot of the time people forget all the businesses that depend on freight, such as hospitals, or schools that need food deliveries and paper deliveries."
The FTA will be pushing for the night-time lorry ban to be overturned, or at least the Greater London road network to be exempt on the grounds that "these are the strategic routes for London". It claims it has the support of some London boroughs in its call for the night ban to be scrapped and has been try ing to interest mayoral candidates in the potential benefits of lifting it.
But Guttridge admits it will not be easy winning a sympathetic ear for the haulage sector. "We would like to think positively about this as it's a whole new ball game. But we have to recognise that someone has the power to make negative as well as positive decisions.'
Transport firms in London will be
hoping they win the sympathy of the new mayor. Many are already struggling to cope amid the congestion and anti-vehicle culture of inner London.
Alistair Adie, director of Art Move—a firm which specialises in collecting and delivering exhibition pieces for art galleries—says his business, based in the Soho area, is slowly being squeezed by traffic restrictions. "An increasing number of areas are becoming pedestrianised and in Soho large swathes of streets are only available to me up until midday. "In my trade, many galleries only open about loam so I've got two hours to do all the deliveries. It's very difficult."
Adie believes the mayor should consider devising a system where commercial operators are categorised according to how much they need to be in the city.
"If you have an operator who has to operate in London and is servicing the community, then it might be possible to thrash out some kind of identification system," he says.
Stan Gunn, boss of Gunns International Transport--which operates 55 vehicles mostly in and around London—wants the mayor to take action to stop drivers being penalised when they are going about their work.
"It would be good to have parking bays for lorries to offload their consignments. If we go to a firm to deliver zo cartons of paper, you cannot park outside to go and book in without getting a parking ticket," says Gunn.
To get round this the firm has to rely on a complicated and time-consuming system of notification, The driver rings back to base, which in turn calls the customer, who calls the delivery point, where someone has to come and book the delivery in. "It means drivers are stuck for up to 20 minutes doing nothing," says Gunn.
Realistically, such deep-rooted problems are not going to be sorted out by the first mayor in his or her four-year tenure. And whether the freight transport sector gets a fair hearing at all will depend as much, if not more, on the successful candidate's political leanings than the industry's ability to make its case heard.
THE GREATER LONDON AUTHORITY
DOW ITS MADE UP
▪ The elected mayor. l• The London Assembly.
• The assembly will have 25 members.
• 14 of these will be elected on a first-past-thepost vote from constituencies across London.
• The ether 11 will be lop up" seats, THE TIMETABLE • Voting for the mayor and the 14 elected assembly members takes place on 4 May 2000.
• The mayor and Assembly inherit full transfer of powers from 3 July 2000.
WHAT IT CAN DO ON TRANSPORT?
• Take control of all trunk roads in London.
• Review the night-time lorry ban.
• Develop a broad strategy on goods movement.
• Take steps to cut deliveries in peak hours.
• Promote use of quieter, less polluting vehicles.
THE MAIN PLAYERS
Labour Frank Dobson—former Health Secretary.
Glenda Jackson—Former transport minister for
London.
Ken Livingstone—leader of the old GLC in the 19130s.
Conservative Lord Jeffrey Archer—Millionnaire novelist and former Tory party deputy chairman. Beat former Road Haulage Association director general Steven Norris in the selection.
Susan Kramer—Businesswoman who was once president of the Oxford Union.
Loft: Jeffrey Archer, top right: Frank Dobson, bottom right: Ken Livingstone