Residents’ fury at lorry trailer abandoned on quiet village road for 3 …

Residents on a quiet residential street in West Winch have breathed a sigh of relief after a huge lorry trailer was finally removed from the road; it was parked there for three months. The trailer appeared outside number 26 on Common Close on January 5 and residents were left baffled as weeks went past and the trailer continued to stand.

Speculation around who was responsible for the trailer soon began to circulate around the street and angry residents sent numerous emails to the borough council, county council and National Highways in the hopes that they would be able to do something about it.

Residents believed that the trailer is owned by the same person who owned the bungalow it was parked in front of. Residents say that the owner has not lived in the bungalow for quite some time and it had become run down. They first suspected that the lorry was there so that the property could be cleared out.

The lorry was parked near to a corner which forced cars into the path of oncoming traffic. Delivery lorries had struggled to get past, with many having to mount the curb. A hearse and funeral procession also had to mount the curb on one occasion. It was also on a route that many children use to walk to school which left parents concerned with cars having to mount the path to get past.

Gemma Gray, a resident on Common Close said: “People started making attempts to find out why it was there, especially my neighbour who used to live next door to me and moved across the road next door to where the trailer was. They first started contacting the borough council and prior to the owner coming forward and saying it was theirs, the borough council did act and put up notices on it as it was considered to be an abandoned vehicle.

“They gave a seven day notice for it to be removed but in that time, the owner must have come forward and said it’s not abandoned which then meant the borough council’s powers were lost. It was in a really dangerous position because ambulances frequently come down here to go to the care home at the bottom of the road.

In the week before the trailer was removed, cones appeared on the opposite side of the road (Image: Emma Rodgers)

“A couple of people have had deliveries that have had to park on the other side of the lorry and then bring the delivery all the way down the road on a forklift. We had a delivery last week and the driver was less than pleased that he couldn’t get down the road.

“Last week there were cones on the path on the other side to the trailer where people had been forced to drive on the path and had damaged the path. That made it even harder to get through because you couldn’t mount the path. It’s been a real nightmare and it was such an eyesore.”

Within the first month of the trailer being there, offensive language referring to the owner of the trailer, reading “[Suspected owner’s name] IS A LAZY FAT P****” was spray painted onto it. A number of other grotesque images were also graffitied onto the trailer. Light reflectors on the lorry were also smashed, making it very difficult to see in the dark.

Common Close resident Ally Wells, who lives opposite where the trailer was parked said: “We have one street light down Common Close and it’s not near the trailer either. The trailer had no lights, you wouldn’t get away with it if you parked your car there with no MOT or anything.

“One of my neighbours was off work one day and saw a funeral procession having to mount the curb to come past the trailer. When you think about the graffiti and the hearse having to mount the curb it’s horrible, awful. Considering the offensive words and drawings and with kids around, it was frustrating having to see it every day and we expected something to be done sooner.”

Gemma added: “I think people would have been more understanding if it was clear that it was there for a reason. We thought he was clearing out the bungalow but one resident opened the trailer and it was empty. The state of the bungalow is bringing down the house prices on the rest of the street. When the house next door sold, it sold for less because of the condition of his bungalow.”

A spokesperson from Norfolk County Council said: “I can confirm that the trailer was removed on Wednesday morning (March 29) at 10am by Norfolk County Council with assistance from a local recovery company. The trailer has now been moved to the recovery company’s depot.”

The footpath was damaged by vehicles having to mount it to get around the trailer (Image: Emma Rodgers)

Ally said: “As a community we have all stuck together and tried to go the right way about it. When I came around the corner on my way home from work and it wasn’t there it was lovely. It’s so nice that it’s gone now. It shouldn’t have been there for so long and I’m sure everyone on the street will have a little celebration that it’s gone. The road feels massive now, it really did take up a lot of room.”

Norfolk County Councillor Alexandra Kemp held a meeting with the residents in relation to the trailer. Speaking after the removal of the trailer, she said: “For the residents, it wasn’t safe to have the lorry parked like that and taking up the road space, it was causing a hazard.”

When asked why it took three months for the county council to remove the trailer, she said that “the county council had to follow the proper legal processes”.

Before the trailer was removed, a spokesperson from the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk said: “The borough council’s responsibility is to arrange for the removal of abandoned vehicles. We work with the Police and Norfolk County Council to do this. Where a vehicle appears to be abandoned we undertake checks with the appropriate agencies, including DVLA and Police, to ensure the vehicle is not subject to a crime or registered to a local address.

“In the instance with this trailer, our checks were with the Police and the FORS (Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme) register. Which suggested it had, some time ago, been operated by a national carrier but the current status suggested this was not currently the case.

“As such, the normal procedure of placing a 7 day notice was placed on the vehicle advising that it would be removed after 7 days. The registered owner contacted us within the 7 day notice. Our powers cease as it is no longer abandoned, and our involvement ends.”

The suspected owner of the trailer was contacted for comment, but did not reply in time for publication.