Thursday 10th January 2008

Oxfordshire County Council Conservatives

Conservatives vote to bring HGV relief

At today’s meeting of the County Council (8 January), Conservative councillors urged that sufficient proper facilities be made available in the county for HGV drivers rather than allow the continued ad hoc and unsanitary use of lay-bys.

Oxfordshire is both a major warehousing and distribution hub for some of the largest UK companies and also a major route between the south coast and the Midlands and north.

The current shortage of facilities means that many drivers often have no option but to use lay-bys for enforced stops. Where facilities do exist, reaching them often means diverting HGV traffic away from the major arterial routes of the A34 and A40 through Oxfordshire’s market towns such as Wantage, Abingdon, Bicester and Didcot.

Councillor Iain Brown (Hanneys & Hendreds) who won cross-party support for his motion said:

“We all rely on the fact that over 90% of our goods are moved by lorries. Oxfordshire’s economy is increasingly dependent on its role as a centrally located transport hub and through-route.

“It is wrong that drivers of these lorries are excluded from many of the facilities available to other motorists and have so few of their own.

“Future planning proposals need to ensure that some provision is made for the basic needs of the drivers. This should also help reduce HGV problems in our market towns.”