Plans for a permanent base for the Welsh traffic commissioner (TC) have stalled a year after he took up his full-time position in the country.
In his first annual report to the Welsh Government after being appointed Wales’ first full-time TC in October 2016, Nick Jones said his permanent office in Cardiff was “yet to be fully configured and ready for use”.
As part of the Memorandum of Understanding between the transport secretary and the Welsh Government, the TC’s office should have provisions for staff fluent in both English and Welsh. However, Jones said the Office of the Traffic Commissioner was struggling to find bilingual staff in Cardiff.
“If recruitment is unsuccessful, consideration will need to be given to providing a base in North West Wales instead, although there is a clear advantage in my being based in the capital and more readily accessible to government and civil servants,” Jones’ letter said.
Currently the work for public inquiries in front of Jones is undertaken in Bristol and Birmingham.
“Eventually, when my new team in Cardiff is in place I will be able to undertake more constructive engagement and to run specialist seminars with view to improving compliance in both PSV and haulage industries,” Jones said.
He also indicated that HGVs should be allowed to use certain bus lanes to reduce congestion, but each case should be considered on its own merits.
Jones said he was conscious that road space needs “special care” when it is used by both HGVs and cyclists and commended the initatives to train HGV drivers to better understand the needs of cyclists.
“Specialist cycle awareness is not yet to my knowledge one of the modules for HGV CPC, although this might change in future,” he added.
