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Frustrated estate residents have discussed long-running HGV and parking problems with their MP – and suggested a park and ride service and lorry park.
A meeting between Moreton Hall Residents’ Association (MHRA), which represents those living on Moreton Hall, Bury St Edmunds, and Peter Prinsley MP took place last week, with councillors and the town clerk also attending.
Mr Prinsley heard about the problems with lorries passing through the estate affecting residents’ quality of life, and parking issues near the Royal Mail delivery office, in Skyliner Way.
Moreton Hall, in the east of the town, has been expanding in terms of homes and the business parks to the east, where there is a Skechers UK distribution centre and an Evri depot, to name two of the firms based there.
Attempts to achieve a night-time restriction on 7.5 tonne lorries using Orttewell Road – which runs through the residential area – have ‘hit a brick wall’, it has emerged.
Suffolk county councillor Peter Thompson, who was not at last week’s meeting, told SuffolkNews he had been ‘shocked’ the cost to implement this was now around £30,000 – more than his councillor budget – and added: “We are fundamentally working in a broken system.”
A spokesman for Suffolk Highways said it was ‘not in a position’ to pay the shortfall.
The meeting between MHRA and Mr Prinsley heard parking problems along Skyliner Way and nearby residential roads, such as Primack Road, had been exacerbated by Royal Mail’s decision to stop allowing staff to park their vehicles on site.
A Royal Mail spokeswoman confirmed they were no longer able to accommodate staff members’ personal vehicles due to the growth of their fleet and safety concerns following ‘incidents’ due to congestion in the car park.
The need for a lorry park, to provide welfare facilities for HGV drivers, and a park and ride service, which could help to reduce traffic in the town centre, were both brought up by the residents’ group at the meeting.
Lorries parking on the estate’s roads has also been an ongoing issue raised by residents.
Mike Crichton, a committee member of MHRA, told Mr Prinsley that since he moved to the estate in 2002 there had been a ‘massive increase’ in growth.
He added: “There are more than 50 houses that back on to and front on to Orttewell Road. I was in my back garden the other day and did a [unofficial] survey of lorries and it averaged out at five HGVs every 10 minutes.
“That works out at 280 lorries a day and I know there’s more than that. That is not acceptable in a residential area. That’s a normal day and it’s getting worse.”
Mr Prinsley replied: “Let’s try and do something. It’s obvious something has gone seriously awry.”
Mr Crichton also raised the need for improved signage to dissuade HGVs from ‘rat-running’ through the estate, saying the current signage was ‘just irrelevant to what we need’.
Speaking to the Bury Free Press, Mr Thompson, county councillor for Eastgate and Moreton Hall, said trying to put traffic restrictions in was ‘probably one of the most frustrating things I have ever done in my entire life’.
He said he sympathised with Moreton Hall residents over the HGV and parking issues and stressed the substantial amount of time he had put into working on solutions.
The Suffolk Highways spokesman said they had been in discussion with Cllr Thompson over a traffic regulation order to ban 7.5 tonne lorries using Orttewell Road overnight and the costs, including signage, would be in the region of £35,000.
“Even with Cllr Thompson’s full local highway budget and locality budget combined there is still a shortfall of around £10,000, which Suffolk Highways is not in a position to fill and for which he may wish to explore other options for funding,” added the highways spokesman.
A spokesman for West Suffolk Council said there was no provision in the local plan at the moment for a lorry park or a park and ride service.
There is currently a lorry park on Rougham Hill – the other side to Moreton Hall to the business parks to the east – but Melanie Soanes, chairman of MHRA, said it was small.
Speaking after the meeting, she said she had been campaigning for a lorry park for welfare facilities for a long time, and had also been pushing for a park-and-ride service.
She added: “The town is growing massively but they are not putting the infrastructure in. The roads in town, like many others, are medieval. There are houses going up and it’s having an impact on the roads.”
In terms of the need for a park and ride, Andy McGowan, vice-chair of MHRA, told the meeting: “If you want to go to town from Moreton Hall we have [currently] an hourly bus service serving the whole estate.”
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