Sunderland-based company Grid Smarter Cities, which is run by former
Metric Martyrs and parking campaigner Neil Herron, has developed its Kerb Virtual Parking Bay Solution (Kerb VPS) project which uses innovative technology that allows delivery companies and hauliers to pay for timeslots to load or unload on restricted inner city streets.
To leave it will be necessary to repeal the UK's own European Communities Act, 1972, since it is this act which gives EU laws legal force in the UK (see Laws et al, "
Metric Martyrs" Appeal Court judgement).
Lined up against change are the forces of inertia and the so-called
metric martyrs. In the fine old English tradition of eccentricity, to put it mildly, the shopkeepers amongst them declare that they are prepared to go to jail to defend the ounce.
"The EU gave up its fight to crush the
metric martyrs. It is a shame this didn't happen in 1995, when the metric dictat was introduced.
Speaking to the Conservative conference in Birmingham today, Mr Hague said the European Union Bill would ensure absolute clarity over the issue and make it impossible to argue in a British court that ultimate sovereignty had shifted to the EU - as was argued in the case of the so-called
Metric Martyrs.
She is backed by Neil Herron, of
Metric Martyrs, a group that also fights parking offences.
IT'S taken years, but the
Metric Martyrs, started by a group of market traders in Sunderland, appear to have won their campaign.
REMEMBER the
Metric Martyrs - the blokes who campaigned to ensure we could still buy bananas by the pound?
Campaigners yesterday presented a petition calling for pardons for the so-called "
Metric Martyrs" - the group of four market traders and small shopkeepers convicted over the use of imperial measures.
UK Independence Party (UKIP) officials in Brussels talked of
metric martyrs' being vindicated and of being "extremely pleased" at keeping the UK's traditional measures as opposed to the "silly metres" of the French.
Intense lobbying by the
Metric Martyrs campaign has helped ensure dual marking of goods in imperial and metric will continue indefinitely.
Neil Herron, of
Metric Martyrs, backed the new stance.