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Application for Weight Limits on roads through Hilton
A great deal of work was done in 1999 and 2000 to put forward and defend the County Council’s proposal for a 24 hour lorry ban across the Hilton area.
This was implemented on all local roads in the Hilton area, except for B1040 (Potton Road).
Several lorry operators strongly objected to a lorry ban on B1040 and at a Local Public Inquiry, the Inspector eventually accepted the hauliers’ evidence and decided HGV’s should be excluded only during night hours between 11pm and 7am.
The application was evaluated against the then County Policy for Control of Heavy Commercial Vehicles (HCV’s).
In essence, those criteria were:-
1. that there were more than 60 HCV movements per day (agreed 304 movements through Hilton per day in 1999)
2. that at least 50% of those movements using road as through route and could reasonably be expected to use an alternative route (A14/ Galley Hill via A1198 to Kisbys Hut at Papworth)
3. that a Scheme can be signed and enforced
4. that an alternative route is available better suited to passage of HCV’s
5. that the alternative route should not impose unacceptable additional costs on hauliers
The Inspector decided that criteria 1, 2, and 3 were met, but that 4 and 5 were not, owing to the high increase in operational claimed by the hauliers, the A14 congestion problem and higher number of recorded personal accidents on A1198
Later, in 2001, following a revision to the County Policy, Cllr Bates requested a review by Huntingdon Area Joint Committee, on the basis of increased accidents and environmental problems.
The new Policy was essentially similar to the previous one, but with two significant revisions:
· That the environmental and road suitability benefits must outweigh any additional operator costs
· That there is a significant environmental benefit and taking account of noise (night and day)
It was deemed that the changed situation since Public Inquiry were not sufficient to justify a 24 hour lorry ban.
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Background 