Drive to reduce impact of freight on rural Wiltshire towns and villages
Wiltshire Council wants to hear our thoughts and experiences
There's a drive to reduce the number of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) on rural roads in Wiltshire, as the Council aims to draw up a new policy setting out specific routes for freight lorries.
The authority is asking for our views on its draft Freight Action Plan, which is intended to cut down the negative impacts of freight movement around the county.
Freight is a vital part of the county's economy, supplying shops and businesses as well as serving key sectors such as farming, manufacturing and defence. But it's movements can have a detrimental effect on communities in rural and historic parts of the county.
Council Leader, Ian Thorn, told us: "This is principally about saying, here are the network of roads. This is to the hauliers that we want you to use. Please avoid other roads, other routes. We understand on occasions that not possible.
"But, if we could just reduce the number of those heavy vehicles on our rural roads in the centre of our towns by 10 or 20 percent, that would be quite a significant achievement."
He said he wants to keep freight moving smoothly around the county but is keen to ensure that people living in rural areas or towns with medieval plans are supported appropriately by having their concerns around HGVs addressed.
If the plan is approved, it will allow the Council to put up signage and use ANPR cameras to direct and regulate where HGVs can travel on the way to their destination.
Cllr Thorn insisted that the views of locals will be heard, and that sharing our experiences and ideas will help positively shape the new policy.
He said he wants to hear from as many people as possible: "I'm not in favour of what I call fake consultation. Lots of organisations make up their minds before the consultation, have the consultation, then ignore it.
"I'm not in to doing that. This is a proper consultation, we will publish the results and people can come and challenge me as to what we have done in response to the views that residents have put forward."
We can have our say on the consultation until 23:59 on 23rd September. It can be found here.