24/11/2008 by admin.

The Road Haulage Association says it is both bitterly disappointed and angry that despite putting forward a strong case for UK hauliers that seemingly received a sympathetic response from Government, the Chancellor announced an INCREASE!!!! in fuel duty to compensate for the VAT reduction by 2.5 per cent.

“This is an outrageous announcement”, said RHA Chief Executive Roger King. “We have been putting forward the case of unfair competition from foreign hauliers for many years. Indeed the Transport Select Committee itself made a case for measures to level the playing field between UK hauliers and their continental counterparts. Therefore this announcement represents not only a smack in the teeth for UK hauliers, but challenges the conclusion of Westminster’s own Select Committee. 

“The Chancellor claims that the increase in duty is offset by a reduction in VAT. But he does not seem to appreciate that while this may be true for motorists, it is NOT true for hauliers because they can reclaim VAT in full.

So this represents a real increase in the industry’s operational costs and is not what we expected or what UK plc deserved.”

 RHA National Chairman Andy Boyle added: “I am absolutely livid at this announcement. If things were not bad enough, it now seems that we have a Chancellor who does not understand his own tax system.” Darling was a pretty poor Transport Secretary. He has carried his talents to the treasury!

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24/11/2008 by admin.

…but here’s the important bit:

The Government intends to announce new agreements with at least two forerunner city-regions at Budget 2009.

…if that isn’t Greater Manchester and Teeside, I’ll eat my hat

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24/11/2008 by admin.

Not sure about how much use the VAT reduction would be but at least Alistair Darling has made the right decision on air  passenger duty which will be changed to a four-band system rather than charging per passenger….

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24/11/2008 by admin.

I read with sadness of the job losses at the Northern Echo in Darlington and the closure of several district offices, including Stockton, where my father, Bill, began his career.

I almost took my own first job at the sister weekly, the Darlington and Stockton Times who offered me a post when I was 16. I decided, instead, to go back and do my A levels, followed by a degree. I returned sometime later for an interview for the Echo news editor’s job…and didn’t get it.

That extra five years’ education would count for little now were I still in newspapers. I niaively thought that the tradition and quality of newspapers  like the Northern Echo, the Yorkshire Post, and the Journal, would save them from the excesses of the owners. How wrong I was!

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21/11/2008 by admin.

MORE power to the Road Haulage Association’s demands to equalise the price of diesel and petrol. The latter is now 14p a litre more expensive. Surely, the government should be encouraging more mpg ..not fleeceing the diesel drivers!

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19/11/2008 by admin.

I responded to an invitation to get a media pack 24 hours before the pre-budget report.

After a few days, this was the message from the Treasury…. 

“Dear Alan

Unfortunately this year we are in high demand of media packs and we have a limited order, so will not be able to send out any more to organisations outside of national newspapers and broadcast “

Can we really trust the dunderheads at the treasury who can’t even add up the number of media packs it needs?

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17/11/2008 by admin.

Now, as everyone knows, this blog is about important political issues, mainly pertaining to transport.

But I can’t let last weekend’s Strictly Come Dancing pass without comment. And it is………

James Jordan - what a tosser!!!

Those, including the judges, who whinge about how it is a dancing competition  and should be judged on ability, have forgotten that before the telephone votinmg scandals, viewers were invited to vote for their favourites ALL WEEK i.e. before anyone had seen them dance!!!!

Come on John…punch somebody!

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14/11/2008 by admin.

Ihad to go to Stockport to do a radio interview about the Transport Innovation Fund bid. Ironically, my train was running 46 minutes late so I drove….and realised just how bad the A6 between Manchester and Stockport really is!!!  

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11/11/2008 by admin.

Just heard from Downing Street that my petition calling on the Prime Minister to prevail upon John Prescott to enter the House of Lords upon retiring from the Commons has been rejected.

Apparently, the subject is too political!!!!

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10/11/2008 by admin.

I chaired Manchester Airport’s ground transport forum which was sponsored by the Highways Agency.

The officials at the event drew our attention to Atlas pro, a free traffic information service for professionals. Just go to http://atlaspro.tistrafficinfo.com to register. You will be askede why you want access so presumably, there is some kind of vetting but I was given an account..and impressive it is.

I’m still investigating but you get access to some pretty detailed real-time info about what’s going on out there..right down to what is showing at the moment on the variable message signs.

*And while we are on that subject, am I the only one who wonders what is really behind those signs which tell you how long it is going to take you to get to a specific junction ahead.

It works by comparing historical profile data for a route with the current traffic conditions.

The current traffic conditions are monitored using automatic number plate recognition cameras to see how long it takes individuals to travel between fixed points.

Of course the data is then destroyed to comply with the data protection act.

But should the government decide after all to introduce a national road user charge - the equipment is already there!

I actually prepared a story about this for the M.E.N. but the Department for Transport denied it and the newsdesk and the editor took their word and the story never saw the light of day!!!

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