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Update at December 2009

 
Key to lorry movements is the granting of O licences by the Traffic Commissioners under the terms of the Road Traffic Act. Currently the commissioners have to take into account local residents views but not those of parish councils or indeed the local environmental issues. LORD is working with Surrey County Council to try to influence an amendment to the Road Traffic Act to broaden the factors that the Traffic Commissioners need to take into account when granting O licences.
 

Update at February 2009

The latest position from Surrey County Council to address this issue is as follows: 
  1. Freight Quality Partnerships are to be formed in all boroughs
  2. Freight companies are to agree with , councils, and SCC suitable routes for HGVs
  3. Maps to be published of agreed routes for HGVs for each borough (available for downloading by public)
  4. Map showing through-routes for HGVs to be available
  5. SCC to advise Met office on what roads to be excluded for HGV satellite navigation
  6. Public to report any HGVs using roads not on borough maps through Surrey County Council website
  7. SCC to write to offending freight companies
  8. SCC may involve police where HGVS are regular offenders.
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September to December 2007
 
When the residents of Normandy became aware of the numbers of large lorries using Glaziers Lane and Flexford road as a short cut, they formed the Normandy Action Group (NAG) Traffic sub-committee. This committee asked a number of parish councils (46) whether they had similar problems.  It soon became apparent that a large number of parish councils had severe problems with HGVs using their rural lanes as ‘through’ routes to other areas. So the LORD (Lorries Off Rural Detours) campaign was formed.

November 2007

The LORD steering committee decided to investigate what other counties were doing to solve the lorry problem. The search revealed that Suffolk County Council, Trading Standards and Police had jointly set up an ‘HGV Incident Reporting agency which monitored all the complaint forms submitted by the public. This agency then wrote to hauliers whose vehicles had been seen using unsuitable or infringing weight-restricted roads and also advised VOSA and the police. The number of prosecutions that ensued resulted in significantly reducing the number of HGVs using C and D roads.

January 2008
 
LORD met with Surrey County Council Transport officials to highlight the significance of the problem and discuss setting up a similar HGV Incident Reporting and Traffic Management approach within Surrey. This was favourably received and agreement to review progress in March/April agreed.
 
February 2008
 
In order to assist this process LORD has produced a Data Base of all roads in Surrey where parish councils have indicated that they observed HGVs over 18 tonne weight using unsuitably narrow or minor roads for short-cuts or through routes. Suggested improvements to the Surrey Distributor Map indicating the most appropriate roads to be used for HGV traffic were also put forward.
 
March 2008
 
A detailed list of these roads has been sent to Surrey County Council who in the meantime have been updating the recommended Surrey Distribution Maps. preparations are being made for a joint discussion with Councils on April 1st.
 
April 2008
 

The Minutes of the LORD meeting held on April 1 at Effingham , King George V Hall at 7.45 pm

1. Present: The names of those attending the meeting are listed separately

2. Apologies for absence: a number of parish councils advised that they could not find representatives to attend the meeting but in all cases assured us of their continuing support and asked for copies of the Minutes  ( these will be posted on >www.lorryproblems.org.uk)

3. Introduction (by the Chairman :Richard Charles): the Chairman welcomed all those attending including David Munroe (SCC) and Anne Milton (MP for Guildford) 
 
4. Report of the LORD presentation at the inaugural meeting with SCC: Tim Forrest (Steering Committee member and Cllr for Chiddingfold PC) described the presentation at the inaugural meeting with the SCC. The main point was how Suffolk had addressed the HGV problems in their county by setting up a combined county council, police and trading standards unit. This unit monitored HGV problems as reported by local parish councils and members of the public using ‘Lorry Incident Reporting Forms. This led to some prosecutions of hauliers who infringed weight and width restrictions with the consequence that the number of instances of HGV problems on Suffolk roads had been significantly reduced over the last four years 
 
5. Description of the LORD Database and Lorry Incident Reporting forms: Chris Lee, Steering Committee member and representative for Ripley PR) described the Database developed by LORD which listed all the roads with HGV problems submitted by 37 parish councils out of a total of 45. He said that this Database was continuing to be updated as more information was being sent in and that this would be sent to Peter Hitchings SCC which would enable SCC to (i) assess where the major HGV problems were occurring and to advise the SCC highway engineers accordingly.(ii) advise Ordnance Survey of roads not suitable for HGVs for satnav programming purposes . (iii) the ‘D’ roads not shown on the present Surrey Traffic Distribution Network map. .LORD would be asking SCC to ban lorries from using these roads for ‘through routeing’ purposes.

Chris also described the latest ‘Lorry Incident Reporting Form’ which LORD was encouraging all parish councils to use as this was the only means by which SCC would be able to identify where the HGV problem areas were occurring in their area 

6. New LORD website: Patrick Molineux, Steering Committee member and Cllr for Bramley PC).introduced the new LORD website (www.lorryproblems.org.uk). He said that this would provide an alternative means of reporting lorry incidents, announcing new LORD initiatives, posting notices, meeting dates and venues. 

7. Address by David Munro, Executive Committee Member for Transport for SCC: David Munro explained that Surrey transport was split into road maintenance and highways control and that the latter’s top priority was to keep all traffic moving smoothly without undue delay. However, they were also concerned with urban as well as rural areas.  There were however, many more roads in Surrey than in the smaller county of Suffolk. There had also been a significant increase in traffic and this had raised their game in keeping all types of traffic flowing in all areas and they had to consider how to best to: regulate traffic moving lawfully and responsibly and how to co-ordinate suitable routes with the hauliers, use incident reporting forms to indicate bad driving and use of unsuitable roads by HGVs.  David said that there were a number of under-used county and borough councillors who could play an important role in supporting  parish councils for they knew their local areas well. One important undertaking was to ‘de-clutter’ the large number of road signs, classify roads and find the ‘hot spots’. David concluded his address by saying ‘remember that SCC is on your side so do seek our help with your problems’ 
 
8. Anne Milton: The Chairman thanked Anne for attending the meeting and asked her if she would like to say a few words. Anne pledged the continuing support of all of the Surrey MPs in the LORD campaign and their objective to solve problems of large lorries causing problems on Surrey roads. She also confirmed her invitation to LORD to meet with the Surrey MPs at Westminster 
 
9. Summary of some of the main points raised in the discussions from the floor: the right size of lorry should be used for the right size of road- the tendency for hauliers to use one 44 tonne vehicle to cover all deliveries because it saved  return trips to the depot to reload was a major problem; the tendency of lorries with trailers to park them (often over night) while delivering to neighbouring areas was a major concern to some parishes; some roads were so narrow that even horse boxes, 4 X 4 vehicles etc that it made passing extremely difficult

10.The Chairman’s concluding remarks. Richard Charles asked David Munroe whether SCC had plans to include LORD in any discussion panels as originally suggested at the inaugural meeting at County Hall. David replied that the government had asked SCC to look at all transport problems in Surrey including road and rail. It was his intention to fully involve LORD in all these discussions .Richard thanked everyone for attending the meeting.. 
The meeting ended at 9.15 pm.