The Longford road where 'houses shake' as lorries go by...

[dutchman]

Residents signed a petition asking for the HGVs to be diverted but it was thrown out by planners at the city council



Residents living along a busy Coventry road will have to endure HGVs trundling past their homes after a call to have them diverted was thrown out by highways officers. A petition was sent to Coventry City Council urging them to take action on Windmill Road, Longford, but a lack of a suitable alternative route means lorries will stay put.

Cllr Linda Bigham presented the petition at a meeting between officers and the cabinet member for city services, Cllr Patricia Hetherton. The petition called for ‘the prevention of artic lorries travelling along Windmill Road, Longford, due to the narrowness of the road, particularly by the bend opposite the entrance to Longford Park’. It added that two lorries travelling in opposite directions had caused chaos.

But Vivian Robert, the council’s traffic and road safety manager, had bad news for the campaigners. He said: “We have done some studies on alternatives around the area and how HGVs can be redirected because if you take them away from one particular road then you have to put them somewhere else.

“Windmill Road is a designated lorry route between Alderman’s Green Industrial Estate and the A444 and M6. The alternatives that are available to us are Jacker’s Road, Grange Road and Oakmoor Road and all three we considered unsuitable because of a presence of schools in those areas. We don’t want to be displacing HGVs into roads that already have schools in them.”

He confirmed that there had been two collisions on Windmill Road but these had been at the junctions and not along the road itself. And he added: “While we are cognitive of the issues the residents are facing, at the moment we are not able to find any possible alternatives and this seems to be the most logical route.”

Cllr Bigham pointed out that there was both a primary school and nursery on Windmill Road and that this was not the first petition about HGVs presented to council. Another, with more than 200 signatures, was supported by the headteacher in July 2022 after a child had been knocked off their bike.

She said: “Perhaps the installation of cameras would help by showing those near misses that go unreported but nevertheless are spoken of around the school by teachers, teaching assistants and parents. There are many near misses. Some of the HGVs are so heavy that people report that their houses shake when they go past.”

Mr Robert acknowledged that there were schools in Windmill Road but that it wasn’t the best option to take the lorries out of one road and down another that also had a school. He added: “We will continue to monitor the situation and thank you for your suggestion of cameras – they are very useful for the monitoring of near misses.”

A traffic survey carried out in June revealed that HGVs made up 3.8 per cent of the traffic along the road and that the average speed was 21.9mph.

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-road-houses-shake-lorries-33031559