HC Deb 16 February 1972 vol 831 cc404-5
22. Mr. Fox

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will outline his policy on route restriction for heavy lorries; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Peyton

Route restriction imposed by local authorities can play a part in securing an acceptable balance between cheap delivery of goods and the protection of the environment. My aim is to find ways of helping local authorities and industry to reach practical solutions through a concerted approach.

Mr. Fox

Is my right hon. Friend satisfied that the national inter-urban road programme he announced last year is continuing quickly enough to accelerate the restrictions that are so urgently needed?

Mr. Peyton

Nothing can go quite quickly enough. It is going as quickly as possible. But there is every need to treat this problem as one of the greatest urgency.

Mr. J. T. Price

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that heavy lorries, in some of their manifestations, are a nuisance on British roads? Not only is the traffic that is generated by the type of lorries mentioned by the hon. Member for Shipley (Mr. Fox) a nuisance, but many heavy lorries are coming from overseas on ferries and are far in excess of the permitted weights and loads laid down in the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations, for which the right hon. Gentleman is responsible. When will sufficient pressure be put upon the police authorities to enforce the law as it exists on the Statute Book of England and not to ignore it?

Mr. Peyton

I am very much obliged to the hon. Gentleman for having given me an opportunity to tell him that the Government have already acted in this matter and that a Bill is now on its way through Parliament to give powers to deal with foreign lorries. As I have explained to the House previously, the power over foreign lorries is the same as that over British lorries. But it is not much good serving a summons on a driver in Bucharest and. three weeks after the event, telling him to appear that day at Bow Street. He would not need the hon. Gentleman's advice as to how to conduct himself.