Many deliveries in city centres require deliveries from small vans, typically up to 7.5 tonnes GVW. The author travelled on a van for a day, delivering catering supplies to cafes and restaurants in central London. The observations show that the essential requirement to service city centre businesses is often frustrated by loading regulations which fail to recognise the requirements of the businesses and their suppliers. There is also a double standard in operation as local authorities grant dispensations to their own vehicles, such as refuse collection vehicles. The van operators believe that the local authorities are effectively operating a mafia type operation, where the regulations are set to make sure that lots of parking fines are generated, increasing their revenues. The paper concludes that the way parking regulations are currently set in Central London ensures that businesses cannot operate within the law, and if they did so, it would be to the detriment of the economy. For the covering abstract see ITRD E124693.
Abstract