Council challenged over lack of town lorry restrictions
THE failure of Lincolnshire County Council highways department (since the opening of the Bourne relief road in September, 2005) to proceed with a 7.5 tonne LGV ban into West Street is a disgrace and depicts the apathy and incompetence that exists within this organisation, with accountability to no-one.
Two hundred or more (according to their own traffic surveys) LGVs mainly 40 to 42 tonne multi-axle monsters on route west to east and east to west choose the West Road, West Street, Abbey Road route on a daily basis in favour of the longer relief road route.
Put in place, this 7.5 tonne ban would have major overall benefits for Bourne. Less pollution, less noise, less long delays and gridlocks at the town centre traffic lights.
With the additional safety factor at the entrances (or very near) Bourne's two major primary schools on West Road and Abbey Road they have to pass.
Plus a much smoother flow of traffic through Bourne in all directions, and finally as a result far less wear and tear to the already badly damaged road surfaces in West Road, West Street, Abbey Road.
Each time over the past two years when I have raised this issue in writing with the highways department they have countered the above claims with assumed unsubstantiated statistical interpretations of their own road traffic surveys, concluding thus: many more LGVs would have to use South Street, passing two schools; LGVs would use Beech Avenue as an alternative; it was never the intention of the relief road to tackle all LGV movements.
The true facts are: There would be less LGVs using South Street, South Road passing the two schools; an alternative route for LGVs into Beech Avenue (even before the controversial speed humps) is pure nonsense; why was it not the intention for all LGVs to use the relief road?
Why did the highways department say in 2007 that new signage was necessary.
As more proof of the incompetence that exists within the highways department, now in 2009 we are still waiting.
Through your paper I challenge Lincolnshire County Council highways department to give the people in Bourne concise and conclusive evidence why this ban is being denied to them.
B J Hart
Pinewood Close
Bourne
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Weather for Bourne
Friday 25 May 2012
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