HL Deb 23 July 1959 vol 218 cc483-6

4.59 p.m.

THE EARL OF GOSFORD rose to move, That the Special Roads (Classes of Traffic) Order, 1959, and the Motor Vehicles (Speed Limit on Special Roads) Regulations, 1959, be approved. The noble Earl said: My Lords with your Lordships' permission I will move the Special Roads Order and the Motor Vehicles Regulations together. Statutory Instruments similar to those now on the Order Paper were approved by your Lordships last year before the Preston By-pass was opened. Those Statutory Instruments were deliberately experimental and expire on August 1 next.

In the 1958 Classes of Traffic Order, vehicles carrying abnormal indivisible loads (other than military and defence vehicles) were excluded from the motorways. But special arrangements were made, under regulations governing the Preston By-pass, for the Chief Constable of Lancashire to permit certain overwide vehicles on the by-pass for experimental purposes. The new Order now made is a permanent Order, and contains the same exclusions as the 1958 temporary Order except that it makes no provision for excluding abnormal indivisible loads. Experience of these loads on the Preston By-pass, although not very great, appears to indicate that no special difficulty has been experienced in dealing with them, although the wider ones have had to be escorted. My right honourable friend feels, therefore, that abnormal indivisible loads should be restored to their place as one of the permitted classes of traffic on motorways, and he proposes to control them by other means.

The movement of abnormal indivisible loads on roads generally is governed by the Motor Vehicles (Authorisation of Special Types) General Order, 1955, which allows such loads up to a width of 20 feet to be moved without prior authorisation. My right honourable friend proposes to amend this Order, which is subject neither to Affirmative nor to Negative Resolutions, so that, in respect of motorways, the maximum width of abnormal indivisible loads is 14 feet. In reaching this conclusion, account was taken of the fact that the haulier of any load over 9½ feet wide is already required by law, and will continue so to be, to give two clear days' notice to the police of the intended movement, so that the police authorities concerned with a motorway will have the opportunity to decide whether a load should be escorted or whether, where there are special reasons connected with the date or time of movement or otherwise, they should exercise their existing powers to divert the load from the motorway altogether.

On the other hand, the insertion of this limit in the General Order will not mean that the movement of wider loads than 14 feet will be totally prohibited on motorways, but merely that every such load will need a prior individual authorisation from the Ministry. Should these proposals for dealing with abnormal indivisible loads prove to be unsatisfactory, the General Order can readily be amended.

Now, my Lords, I turn to the second set of Regulations. As in the case of the 1958 Classes of Traffic Order, the 1958 Speed Limit on Special Roads Regulations were temporary Regulations, and they also expire on August 1, 1959. The 1958 Regulations provided that the only vehicles permitted to use motorways to which a speed limit applied were cars or other vehicles drawing a two-wheeled trailer, or close-coupled four-wheeled trailer—normally a caravan, in which case the limit was placed at 40 m.p.h. This limit did not apply to articulated vehicles. Experience has shown these arrangements to be satisfactory, and the effect of the new Regulations is to make provision indefinitely on precisely the same lines as in the 1958 Regulations. My right honourable friend sees no need to impose a special speed limit on abnormal indivisible loads on motorways because these are, in the main, incapable of being moved at excessive speeds. He sees no reason to discourage their proceeding at reasonable speeds, as by so doing they will cause the minimum of obstruction to other traffic. My Lords, I beg to move that this Order and these Regulations be approved.

Moved, That the Special Roads (Classes of Traffic) Order, 1959, be aproved.

That the Motor Vehicles (Speed Limit on Special Roads) Regulations, 1959, be approved.—(The Earl of Gosford.)

LORD LUCAS OF CHILWORTH

My Lords, I do not intend to raise another debate on these Orders. The second one, I think we can safely say, we agree with. I do not know whether I agree or disagree with the first one, about the abnormal indivisible loads. I would have suggested to the noble Lord that he might, in some form or another, have given the House the information which he has now given before this date when he wants his Order. He knows very well that abnormal loads have been the subject of very spirited debate in your Lordships' House, and are one of the factors we have to look at very carefully in the regulation of our traffic over the main roads of this country. I do not know that I disagree with what he has done with specific reference to the Preston By-pass, which will now be universal; that is to say, that 14 feet will be the maximum permitted width for these abnormal loads on motorways. But I can promise him that, if he is in his place on that side of the House when we return from the Summer Recess, this matter will have to be debated. I gather from him that the Regulation can be amended at any time. With that assurance, we on this side of the House are prepared to let it go for the time being.

LORD DERWENT

My Lords, may I take this opportunity of congratulating my right honourable friend the Minis- ter of Transport on taking what I think is the common-sense and practical view on this rather vexed question of abnormal loads on motorways? The effect of the regulations he is going to issue is, as I see it, that the regulations controlling abnormal loads will, with one important exception, be the same as they have been heretofore. This will mean that not only will the operators of commercial vehicles be grateful that they are not to be swamped by a whole lot of new regulations, but their drivers, passing from one road to another, will be even more grateful. The regulations, being virtually the same, will be well understood. The only difference is this question of the 20 feet width and the 14 feet width. On ordinary roads vehicles over 20 feet wide will need a special movement order, which may or may not be granted on a particular road; but in the case of motorways if a load is over 14 feet in width then it will require a special movement order Motorways were made to move commercial traffic. Such experience as has so far been gained points to the fact that the smaller abnormal loads are perfectly satisfactory on a motorway. Again, as I say, I should like to congratulate the Minister on having taken the commonsense view on this particular question.

On Question, Motions agreed to.