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not merely thundering through but also blocking us in

The Great Lorry Siege

The Great Lorry Siege (16 Aug 1972)

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

From your columns it is clear that the Great Lorry Trail thunders through many villages in the Oxford area But what your readers may not appreciate is that it sometimes grinds to a halt.

Here in Mill Street, Eynsham, we are plagued from breakfast time to teatime by heavy vehicles parking in the laybys outside our homes.

This picture taken at 3 pm on a Wednesday, which is early closing day in Eynsham, speaks for itself of the volume of the traffic and the inadequate width of the laybys to cope with outsize vehicles. The hundreds of oil stains on the tarmac when the lorries are not there illustrate how frequently they come and go.

But that is only part of the story. They block the light from our windows. They prevent drivers getting their cars out of their garages. They wake sleeping babies. And, bearing in mind a large primary school not to mention a block of old people’s flats along the street they are a constant hazard to road safety.

Nobody begrudges the lorry drivers refreshment. Nobody wishes to deprive the proprietor of the village teashop which has become a transport cafe of her boom in trade. But we feel there should be a proper place where these lorry drivers can park.

We note from a spokesman’s reply to complaints by the residents of Stanton Harcourt earlier this month that Oxfordshire County Council ‘have overall plans for the whole environment’ of the area. We trust they include Eynsham. But we hope they do not mean we will have to wait indefinitely for a solution to our problem.

We feel it should be possible to do something now. It is bad enough having the lorries thundering through our street. It is too much when we have them on our front doorsteps all day as well.

From 28 residents in the affected area of Mill Street (names and addresses supplied).

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