I NOTE with interest Cllr Alan Grant’s reply to my response to his original letter. 

I see that he is ‘sorry’ to need to write again on the subject of foreign drivers.

Why is he sorry? If you raise an issue, you must be prepared for other people to answer, disagree with you and raise further related points.

Do we assume that Cllr Grant considers his views to be beyond challenge?

It is also interesting that he claims that his comment concerning the ‘disproportionate number of accidents involving foreign drivers’ that ‘we see’ was not a UKIP blanket statement but his own observation.

Why use the plural   and sign the letter   ‘Cllr Alan Grant, (UKIP)’, Forest of Dean District Council’ if it is a personal view not attached to any organisation?

I accept that, as a HGV driver involved in the recovery after accidents, Cllr Grant will have first-hand knowledge of the incidents he has attended in Gloucestershire.

However, as he states, he still has no statistical evidence to back up assumptions about foreign drivers throughout the UK.

Neither do I but I didn’t attempt to make any suggestion as to what the evidence might be. I did raise points which would be worthy of investigation.

As for ‘reducing the quantity of foreign-registered lorries on our roads, if our country wasn’t bound by EU rules’, I cannot see how this would have prevented the incident at Broadoak since, as stated by Cllr Grant, the vehicle involved was British-registered.

Furthermore, I believe that the number of continental trucks collecting and delivering imports and exports on our roads is balanced by the number of British vehicles doing the same on continental roads.

I base this on my observations of trucks being loaded at the ferry ports when I make my regular trips to France.

I also note that the roads in France do not seem to be as damaged as ours; this is despite the fact that they are in constant use by the continental trucks running to and from the ferry ports.

With regard to the non-contribution to road tax in Britain and the lack of needing to refuel whilst here, surely the same applies to our vehicles on the continent?

I am sure that our British drivers take advantage of the low diesel prices while they are abroad and load up their tanks before returning to the UK.

Indeed, the fact that the UK is able to set its own road and fuel taxation at rates far higher than those in other EU countries is evidence that we can still have autonomy within our country whilst being a member of the EU.

Finally, if there is evidence that the running of foreign vehicles on our roads is detrimental to the UK and caused by our being a member of the EU, please produce it.

Hearsay statements about and limited observations of a few incidents in Gloucestershire do not provide any foundation for the conclusion that this is ‘another example of the damage caused to the UK by our membership of the EU’. 

– Nigel Wright, Soudley.