The boss of one of Britain’s largest haulage firms has pleaded for more signatures to an online petition that would require councils to include HGV welfare facilities when reviewing planning permission.
The size of the task ahead
Just over 6,000 people have currently signed the online petition, however it will require double 10,000 signatures before the government are obliged to give a response. For the matter to be discussed in Parliament, 100,00 signatures would be required.
Putting forward the case
In a forthright and passionate 2-minute video shared on Facebook, Moreton Cullimore, MD of the Cullimore Group, explained why he thinks people ought to sign the petition:
Truck drivers and trucks deliver 98% of the goods and services that we all, across the UK, enjoy.That means the cereal, the milk, or the bread you eat in the morning, or the bed you get out of in the morning, or the furniture you sit on, got delivered to you at some point by a truck. Truck drivers are key. They are the ones who spent the days and the nights working throughout this pandemic and all the years before that. None of you would go to school, or to work, if those offices and those places didn’t have proper welfare facilities – if they didn’t have water, if they didn’t have toilets, or somewhere to enjoy your lunch. Truck drivers go out each day, and sometimes don’t know where this is going to be.”
Cullimore also stressed that the UK’s service stations are not safe and secure enough to spend the night, and that there simply aren’t enough of them.
The news comes after a Transport Focus Survey of logistics managers found significant dissatisfaction with the state of rest stops on roads managed by Highways England.
The petition shall remain online until February 2021.
Photo: Welcome Break Services at Gretna / © Steve Daniels, used under Creative Commons Licence