The government has pledged to improve overnight HGV parking facilities through “established and new” processes as part of its Covid-19 recovery plan.
The move is revealed in a letter sent last week from Transport Secretary Grant Schapps and transport minister Baroness Vere to RHA chief executive Richard Burnett.
The letter notes “the incredibly important contribution that delivery drivers make to the nation, the economy and businesses,” and pledges to look at new ways to overcome the barriers to creating more parking facilities.
Whilst acknowledging that lorry parks are “not popular developments, so face significant hurdles in the planning system,” it adds that DfT is "committed to looking at both established and new approaches to increase the provision for improved overnight lorry parking in England.
"We are also keen to develop innovative, alternative approaches to provide more capacity.”
The letter also notes that DfT has also recently appointed Richard Aitken-Davies to work with officials on developing more lorry parks.
RHA has been working closely with ministers on moves to improve the provision of lorry parking, the lack of which was highlighted during the pandemic lockdown when lorry drivers were struggling to find parking facilities with adequate toilet provisions and were being refused access to the toilet facilities at depots they were delivering to.
RHA national policy director Duncan Buchanan welcomed the DfT’s commitment to improving lorry parking provision as a “first step at last” but warned that there is a “long way to go.”
