News

Fears over road safety have enabled Surrey County Council (SCC) to successfully object to the use of an operating centre to accommodate artics. Logistic Freight Services, which has a standard licence for 12 vehicles and eight trailers, had been using the site at Bugle Nurseries, Shepperton, Surrey on interim authority since July 2007. However the council believed its junction with the busy A244 made it unsuitable for articulated vehicles.

Christopher Heaps, Deputy Traffic Commissioner  for the South-Eastern and Metropolitan Traffic Area, heard that although the site was authorised for vehicles up to 17 tonnes no articulated vehicles were authorised. The company had erected a warning notice and only allowed vehicles to turn right out of the access road but the council believed these measures only served to underline the dangers of the junction.

At its peak the A244 sees 1,700 vehicles an hour pass the junction. SCC said the entrance did not allow for simultaneous exit and entry and that visibility between vehicles was poor. Mr Williams, on behalf of Logistic Freight Services, said his fleet had three artics and two would visit the site once a day. He had erected a lifting barrier to aid safety and added that artics had been visiting the site regularly for repair or sale for 14 years.

However the DTC dismissed the evidence of a traffic examiner that the change did not represent "a vast increase", saying: "I prefer the evidence of SCC." The DTC had visited  the site and watched vehicles manoeuvring and concluded that the junction was not suitable to "the operation of additional large vehicles in excess of 7.5 tonnes and in particular articulated vehicles". The DTC granted the company operational authority until 1 August in order to find an alternative site, provided vehicles exited onto the A244 forwards and only turned right.

Safety must come first

Despite measures taken by the company to ensure the safe use of artics at this site, the TC saw with his own eyes that their presence was a threat to safety.