Green Party says rush hour HGV ban "is not that simple"

Declaring a blanket ban on HGVs in London’s rush hours is too simplistic, according to the Green Party’s Mayor of London candidate Siân Berry.

Berry said she agreed with the Liberal Democrats’ candidate, Caroline Pidgeon’s, move to reduce HGV traffic in the city’s busiest hours, but that “it’s not as simple as just declaring a ban”.

“What we need is to work through the obstacles together and work it out in a way that suits everyone concerned. It’s not like the whole freight industry is desperate to deliver everything at 8am, because that’s possibly one of the worst possible times for them too, but there are constraints that they have,” she said.

The vehicles that remain on the road, Berry added, should continue to move towards improved visibility so that drivers can see vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists more easily.

She said: "The cyclists continue to be run over, even though there’s a lot of awareness of this problem, and I can’t imagine that all lorry drivers are not fully aware that there may be cyclists around them. But the visibility just isn’t there and I think it’s really important that we sort that out on a practical level."

Pidgeon launched her campaign for the rush hour HGV ban last week. She said: “What I want is to make these mornings and evenings a more pleasant environment for these vulnerable road users, and this means banning those large lorries off our road at these times.”

Wilson James chairman Gary Sullivan later criticised the proposal, as it would cost urban operators four hours of productivity every day.

“Most construction sites are restricted to one delivery point, maybe two on bigger sites,” he said. “So you are taking a huge chunk out of their ability to deliver materials out of their working day.”