TEES-SIDE OPERATORS CAMPAIGN FOR TESTING STATION
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OPERATORS in the Tees-side, Cleveland and Hartlepool area have launched a campaign to get a h.g.v. testing station for Tees-side. Otherwise an estimated 5,000 vehicles will have to travel to Darlington for tests.
The operators decided at a meeting last week to ask the Minister of Transport to provide Tees-side with a testing station. And MPs for Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool, Cleveland, Richmond and Sedgefield will be asked to back the plea.
RHA Northern area chairman Mr. Frank Brown said that Darlington "paled into insignificance" in comparison with the new Tees-side. And Mr. F. Tam, Middlesbrough Co-operative Society transport manager, said that productivity losses implicit in journeys to Darlington were bound to increase operating costs.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Building and Works has awarded contracts for the construction of six more testing stations. Lehane, Mackenzie and Shand Ltd. is to build stations at Alvaston, Derbyshire, Watnall, Notts, and Grantham, Lines, at a cost of £300,000 and in 46 weeks.
Orders worth £280,000 have gone to Tarmac Civil Engineering Ltd. for testing stations at Leeds, York and Steeton (Skipton). The work includes administration blocks, testing ramps and inspection pits.
At Leeds, where up to 30,000 vehicles a year will be tested, the test hall will be about 12,000 sq. ft. and the administration block almost 7,000 sq. ft. Between them the York and Steeton stations will be able to handle 20,000 vehicles a year.