Obstructing the highway
Page 32
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Surely it is time for the haulage industry to take some action to prevent any further restrictions to the movement of its vehicles imposed by the erection of gates and pillars in the road, limiting the effective width to 6ft Sin, which is potently insufficient to permit the passage of anything larger than a car or a small van.
If two drivers were to park their lorries on opposite sides of the road, leaving a gap of only 61/2ft, surely this would be construed by the police as obstruction, so it is somewhat difficult to see what right any local authority has to deliberately obstruct the Queen's highway.
The latest example of this insidious practice is due to be completed in a few days' time, in Camrose Avenue, which is one of the main outlets to A1 and M1 from the West London areas of Hayes, Southall, and Greenford, a road which is not particularly narrow or dangerous and in any case is, up to now, part of a bus route.
All that will be achieved by the erection of this "anti-juggernaut bottleneck" is that drivers will now have to find a new route, mainly through residential roads where presumably they will cause as much annoyance, either real or imagined, as they did on the old route.
If this type of restriction is allowed to continue, operators will find that they are being forced to use certain routes, but without the necessity of the Government having to pass an act of Parliament.
E. G. CORKE, London W13