The owners of the Orwell Crossing Lorry Park in Suffolk have given a cautious welcome to a decision allowing it to continue serving both LGV drivers and the public.
The long fight by park boss Karl Rout to lift a ban on serving the public at the popular site on the A14 ended last week when planning inspector Michael Ellison finally allowed the appeal.
However, although Ellison has lifted the restrictions put in place by the Highways Agency (HA) to limit customers, he has imposed several conditions including a ban on advertising the site as anything other than a lorry park and motorists' rest area also, plans showing designated car and coach parking bays must be approved.
Rout had said that if he lost his appeal then the truck drivers' restaurant was in danger of closing due to a loss in trade (CM 
10 May).
A dispute between the truck park and the HA erupted after the government agency claimed that permission was only granted for the site to serve truck drivers, not the general public. It feared that the facilities would encourage more people to use the congested A14.
Ellison says: "I accept that it is not reasonable to seek to exclude from use of the appeal premises car drivers or coach drivers who are perfectly proper users of the A14 as a strategic route, who wish to take advantage of the facilities at the appeal site as a service area. Preventing them doing so would have no impact on the overall level of traffic on the A14.
"Given that conclusion, and having regard to my conclusion that conditions 2 and 5 are not necessary or reasonable in the interests of amenity and the protection of the local environment, I agree with the appellants that the conditions cannot be retained in their existing form, and that the appeal must therefore be allowed."
Rout 
says he is surprised by the 'no advertising' condition, but adds: "We're pleased that the year-and-three-quarters battle has come to a successful conclusion and there's been a little bit of common sense from the inspector.
"Primarily we always wanted to be a lorry park, but one that makes money rather than loses it."
An HA spokesman says: "This appeal has followed due process and the HA will abide by the decision."