Truckers short cut to be axed
TRUCKERS will this week lose a short cut home with the controversial closure of a lay-by on the A14 at Trimley.It is not known whether any lorry drivers objected to the proposal to close the stop-off just past Trimley Water Tower and the dock spur roundabout, but the Highways Agency has made the order and the lay-by will now be blocked off.
By Richard Cornwell
TRUCKERS will this week lose a short cut home with the controversial closure of a lay-by on the A14 at Trimley.
It is not known whether any lorry drivers objected to the proposal to close the stop-off just past Trimley Water Tower and the dock spur roundabout, but the Highways Agency has made the order and the lay-by will now be blocked off. Vehicles will not be able to use it from Friday, February 15.
It is expected that temporary works will be carried out before a full scheme to remove the lay-by takes place, expected to cost £20,000.
Parish councillors campaigned to close the lay-by because they claimed it was an "appalling health hazard" because of mess left by drivers.
Truckers who live in the village regularly used the stopping place as an overnight parking place for their lorries.
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Drivers park up in the lay-by and then go through a gap in the fence, which vandals have cut down many times despite repeated repairs, onto a footpath leading to Langstons on the Farmlands estate.
They then sleep overnight at home and go back to their lorries next day.
Councillors and residents of Trimley St Mary waged a two year battle to get the lay-by closed because they claimed some lorry drivers, not local ones, have thrown bags of human excrement and other rubbish over the fence into an area close to homes and where youngsters play.
It is also noisy for residents when refrigeration trucks are left parked up.
Six options were considered, including leaving it as it is putting up an 8ft boarded fence between the lay-by and Langstons to put an end to pedestrian access, closing it except for a small area for a police patrol car, and banning overnight parking.
Police favoured the closure option because of the danger of lorries pulling in and out of the lay-by with traffic coming off the dock spur roundabout from Felixstowe port.
The lay-by was also said to be redundant now a huge new one has been built on the Port of Felixstowe Road just 150 yards away.
