CONCERNS have been raised over heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) travelling through Fordingbridge. 

Fordingbridge Town Council discussed heavy goods traffic on Station Road and High Street at its meeting on June 9. 

New Forest District and Hampshire County councillor Edward Heron said measures to help with HGV traffic included weight and width restrictions and lorry restriction zones, which limited vehicles for access. 

But he told the meeting the last survey carried out when weight restrictions for the town were being considered found the majority of lorries were using the roads for access to and from local businesses and due to the number of local operator licences in the area he was “not convinced” they would see “much of a change by putting in effectively a lorry ban”.

Councillor John Mouland said when concerns were raised previously a survey carried out found a lot of vehicles were coming from the B354 Blandford road - using it as a “cut through” rather than going through Salisbury. 

And Councillor Brian Perkins said HGVs would head towards Alderholt but “you don’t see them come back so they are only going one way”. 

Cllr Heron said there was an example at a green waste site in Rockborne where there was a routing agreement where big delivery lorries not from the area have to go north up the B354 and to Salisbury and back down thee A338.

He said it would be “nice” to do a fresh survey but said it was unlikely funds would be available but suggested if the town council were going to do some work around this it could “feed” it into discussions on the town centre design and Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

During the meeting at the town hall a resident also raised concerns about the “dangerous junction” at Ashford Road and Station Road with road markings “worn away and non existent” as well as the speed it was approached by motorists.

 

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