LORRY drivers and townsfolk must wait another five weeks to see if the Kirkby Stephen HGV ban is made permanent.

Traffic surveys are being carried out on the A685 to demonstrate the impact of the experimental ban on vehicles over 18 tonnes.

Members of Cumbria County Council's Eden area committee heard the surveys had been extended by a week because of the disruption caused by the fuel crisis.

They agreed to defer their decision until September's traffic figures were available, so they could compare them with traffic data from September 1999 - three months before the ban was introduced.

The Freight Transport Association made the only formal objection to the 18-month ban becoming permanent.

Speaking to the committee, regional policy adviser Jonathan James said the association had 3,000 members in the North of England - most of whom needed to travel the A685 road through Kirkby Stephen at some point.

"Be in no doubt that this lorry ban is the most significant lorry ban in force in the United Kingdom today," said Mr James.

The ban was costing the road haulage industry around £1.9 million per year in extra running costs - which would pay for a Kirkby Stephen bypass every three years, he said.

HGVs which were travelling longer distances to avoid Kirkby Stephen had released 250,000 extra tonnes of carbon dioxide since the ban was introduced last December, he said.

Lorry drivers were working almost 64,000 extra hours per year.

The Co-operative Wholesale Society - which delivers from County Durham to the Lake District - is running up extra costs of £680.11 per week because of the ban, said Mr James.

He said there was still hope for the Kirkby Stephen bypass scheme - which was controversially abandoned by CCC after a public inquiry inspector concluded in favour of the road - because the Government had made funding available for 100 new bypasses in its ten-year transport plan.

He said it was not too late for the scheme to be revived, and the bypass was the only answer for residents and industry.

The committee heard that CCC had been invited by the Government to reconsider and increase its transport bid.

The bid had been increased from £12 to £16 million, although officers could not reveal which schemes had been added.

The deadline for the new bid to be submitted was last Friday (September 15).

Councillors agreed to consider whether to make the Kirkby Stephen lorry ban permanent at their next meeting on October 27.