Council warned over planned HGVs ban

Dublin City councillors are being advised not to ban heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) from delivering to city businesses after the Dublin Port Tunnel opens later this year.

Councillors had voted to ban all HGVs with five axles or more from city streets between 7am and 7pm, within a cordon from the Royal Canal on the northside and the Grand Canal on the southside, and including some surrounding suburbs.

They accepted that a permit system would have to be put in place to allow deliveries to city businesses, but stated that this should be strictly limited and that businesses should be encouraged to use smaller lorries.

Chartered engineer and planning consultant Dr Michael MacNicholas was commissioned to design a permit system for the council and his report is due to come before the council's traffic and transport committee today.

He will recommend that all "legitimate business", ie those who are operating within the cordon, should get a permit "without too much trouble".

This should be done to avoid difficulty in deciding who gets a permit and protect the council from legal action from aggrieved business people refused a permit.

"Potential legal challenges to decisions should therefore be considered as a negative factor in going for a very rigid adjudication process for permits," he said.

The council should also consider the commercial impact on businesses, which he said might leave the city if they could not get permits. "In the more extreme cases it is possible that an inflexible permit system could undermine the viability of certain traditional city-based businesses."

The council was also seeking to ban trucks that were too tall for the port tunnel from Dublin streets. Dr MacNicholas said this would lead to "lots of opposition" and would unfairly penalise operators with these vehicles. It was a national problem and should be dealt with by the Minister for Transport, he said.