The government has announced measures to encourage development of more parking and services for lorries.
In a statement to the House of Commons the transport secretary Grant Shapps said: “This government is committed to addressing the strategic national need for more lorry parking and better services in lorry parks in England and we must act now.
“To support our hauliers’ access to parking and services in the near term we are working with our partners to identify and deliver a number of temporary sites where short-term modular facilities can be installed to address some of our immediate need.
“We are encouraging National Highways to consider how their land holdings can be used to provide additional parking spaces nationwide, to give priority to the provision of lorry parking across the Strategic Road Network and assist local authorities in identifying areas of lorry parking need.”
This government is also determined that the planning system should play its part in meeting the needs of hauliers and addressing current deficiencies. Planning plays a critical part in the allocation of land for lorry parking.
He also revealed that planning guidance was being updated to encourage use of land for lorry parks. He said: “We have published planning practice guidance setting out how local planning authorities can assess the need for and allocate land to logistics site uses and are accelerating work recommended by the National Infrastructure Commission to consider the appropriateness of current planning practice guidance. This includes taking forward a review of how the freight sector is currently represented in guidance.”
The National lorry parking survey is also being updated to ensure strong evidence is available on the national picture. A programme of longer-term measures is under development supported by the £32.5m in roadside facilities for hauliers announced in last week’s budget, and a long-term strategic plan for the freight sector is due to be published in coming months.
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