By IRNA,
London : Up to 1,000 lorry drivers from across the UK were converging on London Wednesday in a renewed protest over fuel prices.
The protest, organised by the lobby group TransAction 2007, was expected to grindlock central London, with drivers planning to line up their lorries along a closed section of the A40, a main route into the capital.
The last blockade in London at the end of May caused traffic chaos, but organisers claimed the latest, which includes the support of the Road Haulage Association, will be the biggest yet to convey the desperation felt by lorry drivers over ever-rising fuel costs.
Lorry drivers are calling for a rebate of up to 50 per cent in fuel duty to allow the British haulage industry to compete with companies in European countries where fuel is significantly cheaper.
“Our industry is being driven out of business. Continental hauliers are able to run in the UK using cheaper fuel from abroad,” said Peter Carroll, spokesman for TransAction.
“The Government needs to realise that the surge in oil prices has changed the world. It is madness to insist on charging the highest level of fuel duty in the EU on top of a world price that has rocketed,” Carroll said.
“If nothing is done, thousands of UK hauliers will go bust,” he warned, comparing the plight of hauliers, who pay the full rate of fuel duty that makes up nearly half the price of diesel, compared with a discount of 41 p (Dlrs 0.80) a litre buses can claim.
Under police control, a series of convoys, each of 10 to 30 lorries were planning to move into central London while a delegation of hauliers marches to parliament.
More than 640 MPs have received requests for a meeting from hauliers based in their constituencies and the protesters hope they will be able to express their concerns in person.
During the last protest, a section of the London-bound A40 carriageway was closed from 10am to 3pm as nearly 300 lorry drivers parked their vehicles on the normally busy road.
Separately, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) is urging the Government to scrap diesel duty increases. The association says that the postponement of the 2p fuel duty increase to October is “not good enough”.
In Britain, duty on diesel is 50p per litre compared to the EU average of 25p per litre. Diesel prices in this country have risen by almost 50 percent over the past year.