Residents concerned about HGVs on narrow streets

People in Stratford-upon-Avon say large lorries are getting stuck on narrow roads

Residents in Stratford-upon-Avon say they are “concerned and angry” about roadworks that have seen HGVs using narrow streets and getting stuck.

Work started on a section of the A439 Warwick Road in the town on Monday and is expected to last six months.

But, as well as fears about longer journey times, residents said large lorries were missing diversion signs.

The county council said the scheme was needed to reduce crashes and build a cycle lane.

There will be “unavoidable disruption”, the local authority said.

Anne Warren, who lives on Great William Street, said that HGV drivers had been going down the narrow road because diversion directions were not very clear.

The street was “only just passable for a large car” and it took 45 minutes to get a transporter out of the road on Monday after it became stuck, she said.

“The poor lorry driver was mortified,” Ms Warren said, adding that “right behind that there was another juggernaut and we had to turn that round”.

Residents were “concerned and angry” that the signs were not clear enough to take traffic on the gyratory and back along the Birmingham Road, she said.

Amy Saunders, who is visiting the town from Durham, said her parked rental car had been clipped by a lorry while she was sitting in it.

“It was the tail-end of the truck that caught the [passenger] wing mirror and knocked it clean off,” she said, adding that the driver was trying to be as careful as possible.

She said she had since been in touch with the rental company to work out any costs.

Ms Warren said large vehicles going down her street at night had also knocked some cars.

“Day one, we’ve had accidents,” she said.

“The thought of that lasting until August is a bit of a nightmare.”

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