Angela Eagle, exchequer secretary to the Treasury, took the unusual step of visiting South Wales haulage firm Owens Road Services last week to find out first-hand how fuel tax rises affect the industry. Eagle’s visit on 27 March was organised by Owens, the FTA and local MPs Nia Griffith and Dr Hywel Francis. The Llanelli haulage firm presented figures to Eagle which show the postponed fuel duty rise - originally planned to take place this week - would have cost Owens an additional £250,000 Ian Gallagher, policy manager for Wales at the FTA, thinks the meeting was valuable.

“The minister was confronted with [an FTA] member face-to-face, rather than through an association,” he says. “And she realised, I hope, that the pressure we are putting on the Treasury is not the concern only of a lobbying group, but has some very real foundations. Owens was able to reiterate the concerns from a grass-roots level.”

Gallagher hopes to bring a number of operators to face-to-face meetings with senior MPs, including the secretary of state for Wales, Paul Murphy, or senior civil servants, as the FTA begins its fight against the proposed 2p/litre fuel duty rise scheduled for October. No-one from the Treasury was available to comment as MT went to press.

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