More than 350 Witham residents fed up with the town centre's lorry ban being flouted have signed a petition calling for it to be more strictly enforced.

A letter, accompanying the petition, complained to Essex County Council and Witham Town Council that the area around Bridge Street is being "ruined by pollution and traffic".

Recently, Essex Police carried out a number of spot-checks and warned heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers that they were flouting the 7.5-tonne weight limit.

But the view of the county council's highways department is that no more rigorous enforcement can be considered until the town's A12 junctions are improved to give HGVs easier access to and from the A12 at each end of the town.

Bridge Street resident Janet Mead, whose front door is only a couple of feet from the roadway and who signed the petition, said she understood that A12 access for HGVs should be improved.

She called for the work to be carried out as soon as possible, saying: "We've lived here for about 15 years and it's been a problem for about as long as we've lived here, but it's got worse in the last two or three years."

Improvements to the A12 Witham north junction are due to be carried out next year. A new southern junction will go ahead once a public inquiry establishes the route of the new Witham to Hatfield Peverel link road.

In the meantime, Dr Bob Evans, Labour district and town councillor for Witham north, called on residents to take down the registration numbers and company names of heavy vehicles disobeying the weight limit and report them to their companies or the police.

Published Tuesday, January 28, 2003

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