Bradford on Avon bridge-ban volunteers deny foreign lorries get free ride
A group of volunteers who man a medieval bridge to report lorry drivers for driving over it have denied claims that British lorry firms are being fined while foreign lorry drivers are escaping punishment.
The Lorry Watch scheme in the Wiltshire market town of Bradford on Avon is the first of its kind in the West and has now claimed another major scalp, with famous lorry firm Eddie Stobart the latest to be fined for crossing the Town Bridge. Now word is getting out in the trucker community, with warnings – and moans – on internet forums. One trucker – known as Toby – warned his fellow drivers: “Be careful with an artic, even if you think being empty on the 18-tonne limit, you will get the £1,000 fine as several firms have found out.
“The spotters are there from 7am to 6pm, after that do what you want, and foreign trucks are exempt from prosecution. All fair and harmony in the EU, then?” he added.
The 14th-century bridge is the only way across the River Avon in the town and for miles around, and lorries adhering to an 18-tonne weight limit face delays in the traffic of Bath, ten miles downstream, or a detour through Melksham, six miles upstream.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
Volunteers sign up to wait on the bridge to log the registration numbers of lorries breaking the weight ban, and the bridge is usually manned from 7am to 6pm most days.
The number plates logged by volunteers are passed on to Wiltshire Council’s enforcers, and they write a warning letter to the lorry firms. If the same firm’s lorry is spotted crossing the bridge a second time, they are taken to court and so far around half a dozen, including several in Somerset, have been given fines of up to £1,000 each.
Earlier in February, Eddie Stobart Ltd pleaded guilty to two offences and was given a total of fines and costs of £1,590. Those behind the Lorry Watch scheme denied foreign firms were “exempt” from paying the fines, although they admitted it is harder to track them down. Wiltshire Council said volunteers had written down many foreign-registered lorries breaking the ban – and sent warning letters – but since none had done so twice, they had not had to test the system.
“Where foreign vehicles are observed breaching the weight restriction, attempts are made to trace and warn the registered keeper of the vehicle,” a spokesman said. “Sometimes we are successful, sometimes not, however our records show that no foreign vehicles have to date been observed repeating the offence.”
Steph Ridout, the co-ordinator of the scheme, said she was pleased word was getting out in the trucking community to avoid Bradford on Avon, and that lorry drivers were warning each other, but said they should be careful not to risk crossing the bridge “after hours”.
“We do random watches at all times in the day,” she said. “We have in the past had people there in the early hours of the morning."
3 Comments
by Juneplayer
Saturday, March 02 2013, 10:47PM
“Brook Rd Bridge has been suffering from the same problem with a 7.5t weight restriction. Huge lorries are spotted crossing over it, HOWEVER, yesterday work was done to put a build-out into the road a bit on which is a weight restriction sign SO, there is now NO excuse for overweight vehicles to go up Brook Rd to then have to carry on over the bridge or struggle and cause mayhem as they try to reverse back down the road. It has taken quite some time to get this done but I very much hope it will solve our problems. Drivers certainly will not now be able to say,'I didn't see the sign!' Fingers crossed this action works.”
by rogerh3
Friday, March 01 2013, 5:09PM
“It's solved the problem of 18 ton artics going through the middle of Bradford. Pity it takes these volunteers to stop drivers breaking the law, though.”
by mrmeldrew
Friday, March 01 2013, 1:08PM
“If the roads were not as medievil as the bridge then the volunteers would have nothing to watch.
By putting a weight restriction on the bridge has simply pushed the problem of heavy lorries on small roads elsewhere,it has solved nothing.
Bath wanted to put in place a weight restriction on the A36 but they were prevented by the criticism of neighbouring councils that it was not the answer and that the new limit if introduced would push heavy lorries elsewhere!!
Now isnt that a little hypocritical?”