Bridge ban battle hots up on Bradford-on-Avon road
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By Chris Tindall VOLUNTEERS REPORTING LGVs for flouting weight restrictions on a bridge in Bradford-on-Avon have got it wrong 150 times since the ban was introduced last year.
Wiltshire Council’s Trading Standards Office tells CM that although it has received 1,000 reports of lorries breaching an 18-tonne weight limit on the historic Town Bridge, 15% of them have been incorrect.
Senior Trading Standards officer Tom Hutchinson also says there have been five repeat offenders and one haulier might be prosecuted. The figures have emerged as a row breaks out over plans to introduce another 18-tonne LGV ban on the town’s Cleveland Bridge.
Lorry Watch co-ordinator Stephanie Ridout has written to Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) describing the “alarm and distress” that the proposed restriction is having on residents, who believe it will force lorries back on to the bridge. She says the number of overweight LGVs using the bridge has halved since the scheme started in October 2011.
A BANES spokesman says it is consulting with operators about the forthcoming ban in June. “Local residents are concerned about road safety issues and intimidation experienced by vulnerable road users in the Bath World Heritage Site.” Road Haulage Association regional director Nick Payne is meeting BANES to discuss the issue next week. “We feel it can’t go on until we have a meeting to express the views of hauliers and our members,” he says.