Residents riled by rising lorry count

A resident has counted 140 lorries travelling through his village in just one day.

He believes drivers are using Orston as a cut-through from the A52 to Staples Quarry Landfill at Cotham.

Mr Jeff Dickinson, of Station Road, told Orston Parish Council that he had counted how many lorries passed his house in a day.

He set up a video camera in his garden to record the traffic, which, he says, will verify his claim.

Mr Dickinson, who has lived in the village for more than 18 years, said something had to be done.

“At peak times — lunchtime and early morning — there is one lorry going past every three minutes,” he said.

“It makes the house shake when they pass.”

Mr Dickinson, a retired research scientist, said the problem had been steadily getting worse over the last five years.

He said lorries started to come down the road at 6am and didn’t stop until 6pm.

Mr Dickinson claimed the road had been damaged from over-use and was not suitable for heavy goods vehicles.

His neighbour, Mr Ian Sporton, said the number of lorries using the road was ridiculous.

He said: “It is disrupting village life. They are huge lorries and they shouldn’t be using the village as a cut through.”

He said there was not enough room for lorries to pass on the road so grass verges had been churned up and destroyed.

He counted 28 lorries going past in 11/2 hours and noticed some of the lorries were travelling from Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire and other places in Derbyshire.

The local member of Nottinghamshire County Council, Mr Martin Suthers, said he was aware of the problem and he didn’t think it was acceptable.

He said the council had already started repairing the road near the Manor Arms at Elton, at the A52 turn off.

“They have started work. It looks like they are strengthening and repairing the road that has become damaged by heavy goods vehicles,” he said.

Mr Suthers said it was rumoured this construction work was costing the county council £100,000.

“The council would not have had to spend all this money if it had stopped vehicles using the road in the first place,” he said.

He plans to raise the issue with the council’s highways department.