Government agrees to widen lorry ban

The Czech government agreed on Wednesday to extend a lorry ban, ending a 15-month dispute which has threatened to topple the government coalition. The issue provoked the Greens’ leader Martin Bursík to threaten to walk out of the cabinet in July, when he accused PM Mirek Topolánek of backing down on a promise. The Green Party has long wanted to widen the lorry ban, which they say lessens air and noise pollution and dramatically cuts accidents. The proposed new law agreed upon on Wednesday extends the current Friday summertime ban on lorries between 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm to a year-round one and widens an existing Sunday ban to cover almost the whole day. The move will help bring the Czech ban into line with countries such as Germany, Austria and Slovakia, Environment Minister Martin Bursík said.