'We'll do it again', say protest truckers (From Warrington Guardian)

'We'll do it again', say protest truckers

TRUCK drivers in Warrington say they will repeat the chaos they brought to the area's roads this week in their bid to get the tax on diesel reduced.

A convoy of truckers angry at the extra cost lumped on their businesses by the last budget set off for Manchester from Lymm on Monday morning, bringing roads around south Warrington to a halt.

A survey conducted after the event showed that 95 per cent of the public were behind the truck companies in their bid to get the tax level reduced.

Alan Wilson, owner of A and K Transport in Culcheth said: "It's just costing us too much to run these vehicles."

Mr Wilson set up his business six years ago as a one man band operation. "Since the budget I have seen a big difference. If I go to Scotland with a load it now costs me another £25 - a cost I can't pass on to the customer.

"I don't know whether taking this action will do anything or not, but you can't just sit there waiting to go out of business. It must be doing a bit of good, just getting people talking.

"I would do it again. In fact, I think they should stop all the traffic by blocking the roads."

Frank Howard, who runs Howard's Transport in Culcheth, added: "We have got to do something and where else can we protest? The general public doesn't know our situation. They don't know how much lorry tax has gone up. They probably know the price of diesel but probably don't know the price on the continent in comparison.

"It's an everyday cost that we can't get away from. We can't pass it on to our customers, but we can't stand it either. I would be committed to doing another."

The organiser of the Manchester run, Richard Dingle, said he was very pleased with the way it had gone. "We had the second biggest turnout in the country after London, and we only had six days to organise it. I want to thank all the people who turned up.

"There is definitely going to be another one, but it is going to be different. We learnt a lot from that day."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.