Truckers put foot down on speed

HAULIERS want to see the speed limit raised on some key routes and compensation paid for the foot and mouth outbreak.

The Road Haulage Association and Freight Transport Association will meet Scottish transport minister Stewart Stevenson this week for showdown talks over a number of issues, including a proposed new Forth crossing.

The trucking industry is keen to see the speed limit for lorries on "good quality" single carriageway roads - including most of the A9 - raised from 40mph to 50mph.

Gavin Scott, head of policy at the Freight Transport Association, said the limit put places such as Inverness at a disadvantage compared to English cities which are linked by motorways or dual carriageways with higher speed limits.

He said: "These speed limits were determined before radial tyres, anti-lock braking or power steering were common. It seems stupid that such restrictions should be in place on a good road like the A9."

But a move to raise the speed limit is likely to anger the Green Party, which has an agreement with the SNP under which its MSPs voted for Alex Salmond to become first minister and who support his ministerial appointments. Green policy is to reduce the number and size of lorries on Scotland's roads, and the party has called for speed limits to be reduced. Green MSP Patrick Harvie is convener of the Parliament's climate change, transport and infrastructure committee.

The RHA wants the Executive to compensate its members for money lost during this year's foot and mouth disease crisis, when many lorries were forced to stand idle.

Phil Flanders, the association's Scotland director, said: "We will be presenting the hauliers' plight. The last time there was an epidemic, everyone else who was affected got compensated except the hauliers. If the government can't help, maybe we will have to sue Pirbright [the laboratory near where the outbreak originated]."

But an Executive spokesman said there would be no compensation for the effects of the outbreak: "We recognise that recent restrictions imposed on animal movements have caused difficulties for hauliers. However, consequential losses cannot be compensated."

Both haulage groups insist the Executive should build a bridge rather than dig a tunnel for the new Forth crossing, an option preferred by some residents and environmental campaigners.

Tunnels are unsuitable for many types of cargo, including whisky and dangerous chemicals, so a large proportion of lorries using the Forth Road Bridge now have to make a 30-mile detour through Kincardine if a tunnel was chosen.

The FTA's Scott said: "It does seem rather perverse to consider a crossing which would have such restrictions on the loads it could carry. People say that high winds on a bridge can also prevent lorries from using it, but that has not happened with the new Severn crossing in a location with stronger winds than the Forth."

The Executive will decide on the type of crossing in autumn. A Transport Scotland agency report recommended a cable-stayed bridge, just to the west of the existing road bridge, which would cost an estimated £2.5bn.