On 15 June its Transport and Environment Committee considered the key findings of the review and agreed recommendations in three areas: awareness and communication; technology; enforcement and administration.
As for the first, it found: “poor levels of understanding about the scheme’s purpose, benefits and rules make the scheme unpopular with the freight industry”.
The committee is also exploring technological improvement of the scheme, in terms of route-planning tools and satnavs, and is considering industry recommendations to improve the scheme. Many of these will be acted on in the next six months.
In response, the RHA said that it was “very disappointed” with the report that it says “totally side-lines the key points raised by the freight industry and misses the opportunity to improve the environment for people and businesses in London. The report does little more than seek to perpetuate a scheme from the 1980’s that is out of date with how Londoners and its businesses live today.”
It goes on to say: “The report claims the scheme controls movements on “specific roads” – it does not. The scheme applies to all roads in London – with a specific and limited network of roads excluded from the scheme.
“The report glosses over key areas identified by industry - in particular the very limited extent of the network that is excluded from the scheme (which the industry believes is inadequate) and the hours of operation (which the industry believes is too restrictive, out of date and inappropriate).”
A detailed report on the review process, findings and recommendations is due to be published 'soon'.
