Lams HGV training row
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• Angry residents of a Lancashire market town are campaigning to get lorry training banned from narrow streets "meant for horses and carts". They claim that driver training is going on seven days a week.
HGV driving schools operating in Kirkham say they are trying to comply with the objectors' wishes, but warn that a training ban could lead to the closure of the local test centre, moving the problem elsewhere.
Residents say that a bypass on the A583 from nearby Preston was opened in December to keep lorries out of the ancient market town, but that trucks from training schools continually rumble through its centre, shaking the foundations of its tiny terraced houses.
They also want HGVs banned from practising hill starts on the steep hills leading out of the town, and are urging the Department of Transport to build its own track if it wants to continue training in the area.
The Ribble Valley Road Haulage Training Group has promised to stop its instructors taking lorries through the town centre, but it will continue to use the outskirts of the town and surrounding hills. "I sympathise with the residents wholeheartedly," says training manager Robert Walshaw.
Lancaster Training services says it will try to do "whatever the residents want", and admits "there are days when an unholy procession of training vehicles are going through Kirkham". However, training officer Norman Dickinson foresees problems if the test centre is forced to close: "We would have to use a lot of extra miles to go to a test centre in Carlisle which would increase the cost of courses."
Ken Pedder of Ken Pedder Training Services says he tries to avoid going through Kirkham, but warns that there is no easy solution. "If they got lorry training banned from Kirkham the test centre would have to move and the problem would move with it," he says.
Councillor Bob Fisher, who is leading the campaign against training in the town, put a motion before FyHe Borough Council calling for the prohibition of HGV training in Kirkham and nearby Wesham. If successful it will go forward to Lancashire County Council for ratification. "If we don't get cooperation we'll stop the traffic," warns Fisher.