CALLS have been made to vastly reduce the number of heavy goods vehicles in Colchester city centre after a lorry became stuck fast in the historic Dutch Quarter.

After completing a delivery at the Marks and Spencer supermarket on Colchester High Street, the lorry became stuck in St Helen’s Lane on Wednesday evening and was not dislodged until the early hours of Thursday morning.

It is not the first time HGVs have caused problems in the Dutch Quarter. 

One lorry driver was fined and handed a six-point penalty on his driver’s licence in 2011 after getting stuck. 

And in 2012, there were as many as three incidents in the space of four weeks, and the problem recurred again in 2018 when police were forced to close St Helen’s Lane when a lorry driver once again failed to navigate the HGV through the narrow medieval streets.

Gazette:

It has led to Green Party councillor Mark Goacher to call on a new way of preventing large lorries from entering the city centre, so future incidents can be prevented.

He said: “It’s happened before – in fact it’s happened several times and it seems to be happening too regularly for comfort.

“I would have thought that with experience of driving to Marks and Spencer in Colchester, you would think a lorry driver would use a bit of common sense.

“Is it an inexperienced driver or are they not using their brain?”

Gazette:

Aside from being a major inconvenience, lorries can also cause damage to properties, with Mr Goacher explaining drain pipes and brickwork being hit by the vehicles.

“Only last week, someone reported damage to the side of the building – something had smacked a bit of the drain pipe.”

Mr Goacher suggested that goods in larger lorries were transferred to smaller vans nearer to the final destination to prevent lorries using the town centre.

Gazette:

“Obviously, it’s something we need to work on with Essex Highways.

“It’s a case of looking at technology to try and restrict the lorries going down there.

“What I would be interested in seeing is removing HGVs from the town centre altogether.

“A park and ride system for HGVs – that’s what I would be interested in.”