Policing of Weight Restricted Turns on A515

Policing of Weight Restricted Turns on A515

Published 19 July 2019

Letter sent to Sgt. Kevin Royce of Lichfield Police: At a meeting of Kings Bromley Parish Council on Wednesday 10th July there was an agenda item on this issue. We regret that you could not attend but were glad that your representatives PC Amy Sketchley and PCSO Adam McAree could. At that meeting there were representatives of Draycott in the Clay Parish Council, Yoxall Parish Council and YTAG, the Yoxall Traffic Action Group.

The Police representatives reported that they had attended the A515/A513 junction several times and tickets and convictions had been made. When they had attended, the number of HGVs flouting the ban had been quite small. They had also visited companies that they believed were constant offenders. They stated that the photos of offending vehicles sent to them by us and others could not be used to prosecute offenders, which was contrary to what we previously understood. It was made clear that, given pressure on police resources, the junction could only be occasionally manned, and that any help we could provide as to when a police presence would be most effective would be welcomed. We will provide this information by analysing the stream from the webcam sited at the junction.

While we understood that specific instances could not be named, we asked the PC and PCSO to provide us with summary information on the number of times the junction had been policed, the number of tickets issued/convictions made, and the number of haulage companies visited. It was made clear than this was important in order to reassure our parishioners, who see offenders ignoring the turning ban every day, that police action was being taken. We await this information.

In a general open discussion it was made quite clear to the officers that there was a strong feeling amongst parishioners that the turning ban was being flouted regularly and that an increased and better targeted police presence would help. District Councillor Nick Binney, himself an ex-Police Inspector, made the point that the most effective way of treating this problem was by approaching haulage companies directly. This confirms our belief. We have had a very positive reaction from several companies, who have not only committed to instructing their drivers not to flout the turning bans, but in many instances – Wincanton, Shell, Lomas Distribution, Tarmac and Tesco being examples – to avoid using the A515 at all, as they recognise it, especially through Yoxall, to be dangerous to the local inhabitants and environmentally damaging along its whole length. We believe that HGVs from the Fradley Industrial estate now use the A38 route almost exclusively.

We will now stop sending you photos of offending vehicles, but we will collate the information we have to let you know when offending is most prevalent and which companies are involved. We appreciate your cooperation and add, on a positive note, that the HGV traffic on the A515 and A513 has reduced dramatically since the TROs were implemented without, as far as we can tell, any detrimental effect on other routes in the County. This confirms our belief that a total HGV ban on the A515 between Woodend Lane and Stubby Lane is the logical next step. A solution which, I am sure that you would agree, would also be much easier to police.

Allan Howard, Chairman, Kings Bromley Parish Council.