Road Safety Bill [HL]

I wish to approach the question from a different angle: the problem of securing road safety in rural areas such as the one in which I live. I am conscious that most of our roads are class C, originally for horse-drawn traffic, I suppose, and are now used extensively by large delivery vehicles. Somebody living in the area who wishes to buy a new refrigerator may find that it comes in an enormous vehicle that has travelled for 50 miles. As a member of a Select Committee of this House examining proposals from Brussels about the maximum weight of heavy vehicles, I suggested to a representative from the Department for Transport that we should have maximum weights and dimensions for class-C small roads. The official replied, ““Oh, it is quite impossible because that is the task of a local authority. There are no national schemes for minor roads””. That must be examined, in the interests of road safety. Why should we not have a conference of all local authorities to agree a national scheme for the maximum dimension and weight of minor roads? In that way we could greatly reduce the number of accidents, which occur quite regularly on minor roads. Enormous juggernauts come sweeping around such roads, and if you wish to stay alive you have to drive into the hedge, which may not always be sufficient to protect you. There is a problem here which ought to be considered in this context.