§ Mr. Dykesasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the progress of consideration of proposals for the implementation of the Heavy Commercial Vehicles Act 1973.
§ Dr. GilbertThe Department has issued circulars advising local authorities on the action to take to implement the Heavy Commercial Vehicles Act 1973, and has held meetings with them in the regions. Authorities have until 1st January 1977—in Scotland until 1st January 1978—to make surveys, prepare proposals and publish draft orders. The Department held a seminar in March 1975, attended by local authorities, the haulage174W industry, the police and amenity bodies, and has since issued further advice to the authorities.
The wide response to the consultation document about national routes has merited detailed study. The outcome will have long-term implications, and I am concerned more to make the right decisions than to make quick ones.
Meanwhile, as local authorities are aware, lorry drivers are already recommended to use the motorway system and the primary routes. Within this context, authorities will be treating lorry plans, together with other traffic management measures, on their merits. They may wish to concentrate their resources, as many are already doing, upon modest cost-effective improvements at known pinch-points, and upon banning heavy traffic from "rat-runs" through residential and environmentally sensitive areas.