Wiltshire residents campaign to stop lorries using village as cut-through

  • Watch Caron Bell's report

People living in a Wiltshire village say their lives are being made a misery by the huge number of lorries using their high street as a rat run.

Locals in Maiden Bradley near Warminster say lorries come through the village both day and night, rattling windows, damaging manholes and making pavements unsafe.

Many of the lorries are going to and from local quarries in the Mendips.

One former villager, Laura Rayner, said she used to have to park on the busy road and found it so stressful that she moved house because she didn't feel it was safe to bring up children there.

Lauren says she didn't feel her cottage on the main road would be safe enough for her young family.

"We wanted to start a family but we didn't feel it was appropriate to be living here to start our family, because I wouldn't feel comfortable getting Arthur in and out of the car here", she said.

Although the village of Maiden Bradley isn't near any A-roads, its main street is a useful cut-through between them for lorry drivers - who can save fuel by using it.

A local campaign group says it's counted an average of 26 lorries coming through the village every hour.

Milena Stancomb is another worried parent who lives in the village. She said: "It may as well still be 2020 in terms of how I let my daughter go outside.

"I'm certainly not going to let her go anywhere near this road. So if she wants to go on a bike ride around the village, I have to go with her", she added.

The Mendip Quarry Producers told ITV News West Country that the lorries aren't actually breaking the law by coming through the village.

The campaign group is calling on the council to introduce a lorry weight limit

A spokesperson from the group said they want to be good neighbours and they are committed to an ongoing dialogue with local communities.

However the campaign group says communication between the two parties has been limited.

One group member said: "There are about five major stone producers and we've asked them to engage with us and so far we haven't had any direct engagement."

Locals are now trying to persuade Wiltshire Council to introduce a lorry weight limit - an idea that was first considered ten years ago.

The council says it is investigating which routes are being used by HGVs to understand what 'measures may be appropriate'.