§ Mr. Crouchasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement regarding the Government's position on lorry weights and dimensions as expressed at the recent meeting of Transport Ministers in the Council of the European Economic Community.
§ Mrs. ChalkerI explained to the council meeting on 10 June that the Government's proposals, as set out in the White Paper on "Lorries, People and the Environment", were still under consideration. I drew attention to difficulties in the United Kingdom with old bridges which would prevent our agreement to some of the axle loadings proposed in the Commission's draft directive on lorry weights. I drew attention to those general areas of existing agreement, such as power-weight ratios, and also to the economic importance for each member country of support for the principle of Community-wide agreements where they could be reached. No decisions were reached.