Please find below the communications between Bredenbury Group Parish Council and Breedon Quarries regarding the use of C1062 also known as Harp/Rowden Lane. This is as a result of several complaints from local residents on this issue.
Good afternoon Mr Hulse, thank you for your mail below and for bringing your concerns to our attention.
We have spoken to our head of logistics and the area general manager and his team. They believe that this practice may have started in March of this year when we had a large job for which the trucks may have found it easier to use the route in question. The hauliers have agreed that the route is marked as unsuitable for HGVs, but there is no weight restriction on it and they therefore consider it to be legal to use it and it generally saves them a few miles on their journey. It appears they have therefore continued to use this route.
We do not however, believe that this is in the spirit of being a good neighbour, and we will therefore work with our hauliers to avoid this route in future. Some actions we will take are:
- Briefing the hauliers on safety of vulnerable road users and use of appropriate road types;
- Adjusting the route mileage for jobs, so that the hauliers gain no economic benefit from using this route; and
- Briefing our local distribution team to avoid this route, as it is deemed unsuitable for HGV’s.
I can assure you that our local team are fully engaged in maintaining good relationships with their neighbours and the local community, and I would expect that you will now see a change in their route planning in order to avoid the scenario which you have described.
I trust that the above actions will alleviate your, and your residents’, concerns.
Group Services Director
To Group Services Director Breedon Quarries
In the past few weeks, Bredenbury Group Parish Council has received a significant number of communications from residents living along the C1062 regarding the increasing use of this narrow lane by heavy goods vehicles in general and Breedon Quarries vehicles specifically. We have checked to ensure that your vehicles are not delivering to locations along this road but it appears they are using the road as a through route.
The C1062 is subject to advisory notices both at its junction with the B4214 and the A44 in Bredenbury that it is unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles. It is used by many local residents as pedestrians as well as a large number of horse riders. Recently, we have successfully applied for a Traffic Regulation Order to impose a 30mph speed limit at the western end of this route to its junction with the A44 as this section passes directly by Bredenbury School. Finally, it is also used by staff and residents of Rowden House School and the West Midlands Learning Campus where staff accompany residents with serious learning disabilities walking along this road.
We have been in contact with Bromyard and Winslow Town Council as part of the C1062 lies within their boundaries as we suspect that one of the reasons for the increasing use of this route by HGVs is the recent change routing HGVs away from the centre of Bromyard.
I note from your Code of Conduct that Breedon Group acknowledges the interdependency between the success of your business and the well-being of the communities in which you operate and hope that given the above information you will instruct your drivers to avoid using the C1062 unless they are delivering to properties directly on this route.
John Hulse – Chairman, Bredenbury Group Parish Council
