HEAVY TRAFFIC

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 January 1924, Page 3

HEAVY TRAFFIC

COUNCIL AND LORRY-OWNERS. Objection is being taken by sawmillers and other owners of/large? motor trucks to the proposal of the Grey County Council to institute on the recommendation of the County Engineer (Mr J. Higgins) a by-law increasing the license fee for heavy trucks from £5O to £l5O a year. At yesterday’s meeting of the Council, a deputation consisting of Messrs W. Ogilvie, J. Gilbert, J. Stenhouse and R. Spiers met the Council with a request that some alternative scheme of securing revenue for the maintenance of the County roads be adopted. The deputation was introduced by Cr P. Donnellan who stated that it consisted of users of heavy traffic who wished to arrive at an arrangement satisfactory to both parties. “I might say that I am myself a user of heavy traffic,” Said Cr Donnellan. “Have you heard the engineer’s re- , port respecting heavy traffic in the County?” was a question the chairman (Mr J. W. Hannan) put to the i members of the deputation. “No!” was the reply. ‘‘At the request of the Chairman, the ' Engineer read his. report which men- 1 tioned that at the previous meeting of ( the Council he had recommended the , advisableness of repealing the by-laws j providing for the recovery of the cost ' of reinstating roads damaged by loads J in excess of those, allowed from the ( person conducting such traffic and of j substituting therefor an increased ] license on all vehicles engaged in , heavy traffic. The present by-laws which imposed an annual license fee * of £5O for every traction engine or motor waggon engaged in heavy traffic were made in 1904 when there was * only one traction engine and no motor * waggons in use on the County roads. Experience showed the flat rate of 1 license to be unfair and that a limitation of weight was necessary. He c produced a table of the fees imposed ’ by tho Westland,. Inangahua and OrtTiv. 4*5 net .) n<l AVorbc -

Grey Countie.s and the lublic work Department showing that while th< Grey Council allowed a traction engin ( weighing ten tons to use its roads fo: an annual payment of £5O the Public Works Department imposed a fee. o: £250 on a motor lorry half the weight. While all vehicles engaged in heavj traffic (whether goods or passengers; are liable to pay heavy fees those which with their loading weigh one pound less than lg tons to the pair of wheels appeared to be exempt. Section 110 of the Counties Act 1920 provided for the. licensing of vehicles without exception but “judge-made law” appeared to override that and made if unreasonable to impos e license fees on -motor-cars. There might be. fifty oi them weighing less than lg tons to the pair of wheels using a road and one motor lorry of that weight. The damage caused by the lorry would be perhaps less than that done by any one. of the cars yet the one paid and the fifty escaped. The fees now charged by the Council should be varied according to the weight of the load instead of being a flat rate for all loads If the license, fees were more fairly graduated from a minimum of £25 for 1£ ton axel loads to a maximum oi £l5O for a five tons load, the allowable loads on the various roads could be increased considerably. The fees he suggested would be. as follows: Over 1£ and up to 2 tons, £25 ; over 2 and up to 3 tons, £45; over 3 and up to 4 tons, £7O ; over 4 and up to 5 tons, £l5O. Mr. Ogilvie said that the deputation considered that the present license lee of £5O a year was very heavy and should not be increased. They were using well-formed parts of the road. The lighter cars and speedcars were causing the. damage and those who did the damage should be made to ay. The road from Grey to Teremakau was as full of pot-holes as it could be, while the road from Gladstone to Paroa was without a pothole, and a lorry was used on both roads. A meeting of lorry-owners was to have been held that morning but it could not be. arranged and they had come to hear the Council’s views and .to express their own. If the prposed by-laws were passed they could not obey them as it would send the lorries off the road. The Chairman said that the Council had decided to adopt the by-law. They were willing .to heal: arguments to the contrary but their present intention was to carry out the by-law. “I understand that only certain roads are damaged by lorries” said Mr Ogilvie. “That is so” said Mr Higgins. “Then why not take action against the men who- are doing the damage?” Mr Higgins replied that that course had been tried, but the litigation involved both parties in heavy. expense, and althougn the Council got judgment, the costs of law were three times as great as the. judgment, and the company, which brought a lawyer from Christchurch also had to pay great cost. Mr Ogilvie said that all the millers wiAWj /IrUvtrr rlnmncr,, fzi ronds;

WHO were UUUIg vu wiv ivauo were repairing it. They were keeping theii’ promise to do so. 'Jr. J. Byall: They might make a promise, but will they keep it? “Turner Bros kept their promise,’’ said Mr Ogilvie. “Yes” sfaid the Engineer. The Turners have done good work.” Or A. Blair said that the parties who drove holiday cars were always complaining that the roads were not fit to travel on . “It’s the holiday cars that cause the damage, they travel at such a speed!” said Mr Ogilvie. “The trouble is” said Mr Higgins, “that the heavy lorries also travel 'Mast when they have & big load up and the driver wants to get home quickly. He said that he knew places wher e the effect of the heavy lorry traffic could be noticed on the roads directly where the heavy traffic tracks ended. The Chairman said that if the lorryowners objected to the proposals of the Council it was for them to make an alternative proposal. “The toll-gate seems to be the only step ,,} said Mr Higgins. “It will come to that,” said Cr Blair. “Mr Higgins received power a few months ago to erect toll-gates if he wished.” Mr Higgins said that even toll-gates were not very satisfactory. On some roads the fees would not cover the cost of collection. Mr Gilbert said that his firm used only a small portion of the Grey 1 minty and paid a heavy license fee. and he thought it more than paid for the cost of the wear on the roads. If the cost was increased much more the mill would go out of business, especially' as they travelled in the districts of three local bodies —the Grey County, the Westland County and the Kumara Borough Council. The Council ought to seriously consider the whole position before taking any steps to increase the fee. Cr H. G. Carter said that, it was time the Government was made when building roads to make the roads capable of carrying heavy traffic. Cr A. Robinson advocated considera<;

tion for lorry-owners who were using only part of the. roads. Mr Spiers said that he sometimes used his lorry only once a week. Cr J. Baybutt said that if the lotry-owners had no suggestion to make he would suggest that they confer with the Automobile Association and later submit suggestions to the Council. Meanwhile the Council could withold its decision until the next meeting. Mr Ogilvie said that it was a good idea to have a round the table conference with the Council. The Chairman said that tho fact was that the by-laW’ would have to be passed or the Council would simply have to pass formal resolution to do nothing to the roads. That was the only alternative. Someone, was do-

ing the damage, the small cars or the lorries and if they could not get the small cars they must get the lorries. Mr Ogilvie said that it was not fair to .put it all on to the lorryowners. The Chairman said that the only other course would be to refuse to attend to the roads. They could not go on as at present. The revenue must come from somewhere, and if the lorry-owners objected to the proposed by-law and had no suggestion to make the only course left open was not to attend to the. roads, and the lorry-owners would then have a grievance,. Cr Ry all said it was “all rot” for the lorry-owners to come there and say they did not do any damage to the roads. The damage they did could plainly be seen. Cr Blair said that the light car owners blamed the damage on to the lorry-owners and the lorry-owners blamed it on to the light cars (laughter). The Chairman said that any conference they held must take place before the next ordinary meeting, as the whole matter had to.be decided before the next financial year. He. suggested that the meeting be held in two weeks time. It was decided to defer consideration of the proposed by-law until a special meeting on February 18 at which the lorry-owners would have to submit some alternative scheme.