• Thousands of drivers will be forced into making an
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extra 10mile daily trip as council chiefs this week impose a permanent truck ban on a Suffolk A-road.
Hauliers are up in arms over the decision to prohibit vehicles over 7.5 tonnes from the A1088 near the Norfolk border.
Mark Marriott, director of Star Transport in nearby Thetford says: "This is proving really costly for us. "We operate about 40 trucks out of here and they all have to go the long way round."
A few hauliers at either end of the A1088 are allowed to use the route if they have a council-issued permit. But they have had to battle to get one since the experimental ban was introduced last year.
Kevin Frost, director of H Frost and Sons says: "Before we got a permit we had to take the back roads and it would have cost us £30,000 a year."
Pressure from residents of Norton village led to the ban after a number of LGV accidents along the High Street.
Opponents of the scheme say it has simply shifted the problem to other villages and given local hauliers an unfair advantage.