Call to bring ‘proper’ facilities for lorry drivers in Worcester …
Human waste has been left by lorry drivers resting in Worcester after lengthy journeys which Lib Dem councillor Karen Lawrance has blamed on a lack of basic facilities.
She said motorway services frequently proved “expensive, overcrowded, often out-of-order” and “provided inadequate security” and called on the council’s managing director David Blake to write to Worcestershire County Council to investigate the need for secure rest stops and overnight parking for HGV drivers.
Litter pickers, including the Warndon Wombles led by Lib Dem campaigner and council hopeful Sarah Murray, have been finding cups of faeces, soiled toilet paper and bottles of urine in hedges around Wainwright Avenue in Worcester, which runs through the heart of dozens of industrial units near the M5 on the edge of the city.
“All of us rely on these drivers to maintain our supply chain delivering goods and food to the comfort of our homes whilst overlooking even their basic needs,” Cllr Lawrance said during a meeting on March 28.
“Inaction is putting the health of the community at risk. It is time that we recognise that if we want better behaviour from professional drivers, we should deliver them better facilities.”
However, the move was less welcomed by some of the council’s Conservatives – particularly those representing Warndon wards.
Cllr Stephen Hodgson, who represents Warndon Parish North which includes Wainwright Road and the Shire Business Park, asked for the motion to be altered to exclude that area of the city in any potential review of facilities as it was “unsuitable.”
Cllr Hodgson said his proposed changes would stop the “proliferation” of overnight parking by lorries near Warndon Villages.
With some confusion over whether the city council should be writing to the county council or Highways England, the request to change the motion was turned down by Cllr Lawrance.
Cllr Andy Roberts, who represents Warndon Parish South, appeared against the idea of the city council and Worcester’s taxpayers from “taking on the baton” to build facilities for lorry drivers to park in the city and did not believe the county council could do much anyway.
Expecting the facilities to be built in Claines or St Peter’s if the plan ever did go ahead, he called for the vote of individual councillors to be recorded to see who was “amenable” to seeing a lorry car park built in their ward.
The council’s Lib Dem, Labour and Green councillors, including both Lib Dem councillors in Claines and Green councillor Steve Cockeram in St Peter’s, voted in favour of the investigation with the Conservatives voting against it.