For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
User avatar
By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1840145
Instructor Errant wrote:
May need to think through an alternate strategy.

The description of your issues did make me wonder if we are neighbours!!
We live near a clay quarry - very good relationship with the quarry and their vehicles removing clay, but problems with the third party lorries bringing infill.

A couple of thoughts:

1) The police might want to consider spot checks on the lorries bringing the infill. Whilst not breaking the 7.5T EWR, many of the infill lorries in our area had other issues, from mechanical defects to insecure loads. Even if there's nothing wrong, the time taken on a spot check can act as a deterrent.

2) Check for any planning conditions on the site being accessed to see if it had a maximum number of vehicle movements, and/or any restrictions on routing. That would become a planning enforcement issue. It's not uncommon to find a site has crept up above the original approved number of movements, at which point they will need a variation to the planning permission which is an opportunity to impose routing conditions.

3) Consider whether any EWRs could be removed. We have the problem that almost all our local roads now have EWRs, which mean that any road can be used to access anywhere within the EWR. It would have been better if some of the B roads didn't have EWRs, as then it would keep them off the minor roads. This would be a highways authority change (usually County Council or unitary authority)
Andrew Sinclair liked this
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1840149
One solution would be a supplementary sign "No access to Quarry"
User avatar
By JAFO
#1840156
If you're an errant instructor you might well already have a white shirt, black trousers, black tie and black NATO style jumper. If you happened to stand in your own garden, wearing that and holding a hair dryer that wouldn't be impersonating a police officer.

Just saying :thumright:
User avatar
By Andrew Sinclair
#1840293
johnm wrote:One solution would be a supplementary sign "No access to Quarry"


Interestingly that was exactly the approach I initially took. I was successful as far as the local PC were concerned they support it but Somerset County Council Highways Authority just stone-walled it and nothing happened after that.

Similar to that which @rikur_ mentioned above, the quarry isn't really the immediate issue, it is the delivery trucks that come to the site. I don't even blame the drivers and the legitimate route in is so narrow as to stop any right minded driver wanting to take the risk and getting stuck, so they avoid the legitimate route and enter via another route which has a physically impossible turn at the end so they have to back without a banksman.

The route needs to be changed and we're working on that but don't want to appear NIMBYS. Years ago when it all started the trucks were much smaller and the route manageable but this isn't the case now.

Thanks @rikur_ for your helpful input :thumleft:
Last edited by Andrew Sinclair on Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:58 am, edited 1 time in total.