Below is a report by Essex Highways concerning the prospects of restricting HGVs through Stansted Mountfitchet.
The report was circulated to Parish Councillors ahead of our last Full Council meeting on July 31.
Essex Highways have previously raised the prospect of using signage to direct lorries away from the village and camera technology to track HGVs and issue fines.
They now reason there is little evidence of high level HGV use in Stansted, while bringing in restrictions would be impractical.
Essex Highways Report
Findings in relation to proposals to exclude Heavy Goods Vehicles from Grove Hill Stansted
The existing environmental weight restriction in Grove Hill came into force in 1987* and covers vehicles travelling from Lower Street in an easterly direction only. Legal Orders for weight restrictions can be made on the basis of either a weak structure, such as a bridge which doesn’t apply here, or environmental like this one. An environmental weight restriction will always allow for some sort of exception because HGV’s can physically use the road as there is no bridge they could potentially damage; the exception is normally that access is permitted if an HGV has no alternative access to their destination, they can use the road. The Grove Hill restriction is slightly different to this but does still allow for exception for access, but this is specifically related to certain types of operations (see excerpt below). These types of restrictions always present a challenge in terms of how they can be legally enforced – Grove Hill is not unique in this respect.
*2 . Nothing in Article 1 of this Order shall apply so as to prevent any person from causing any vehicle to proceed in the road specified in that Article if the vehicle is being used:-
(a) for the purpose of agriculture in connection with land adjacent to that road or in connection with the conveyance on haulage of timber felled upon that land;
(b) for fire brigade, police or ambulance purposes;
(c) in connection with any of the following operations, namely:-
- (i) building of demolition operations
- (ii) the removal of any obstruction to traffic
- (iII) the maintenance, improvement or reconstruction of that road,
- (iv) the laying, erection, alteration or repair in or on land adjacent to that road, or any sewer, or any main, pipe apparatus for the supply of water, gas or electricity or any telegraphic lines as defined in the Telecommunications Act 1984; or
The traffic surveys/vehicle counts carried out in 2023 (attached and extract below) indicated that HGV use in Grove Hill is relatively low in comparison with similar roads of this classification. The general amount of expected HGV use is around 5% of all vehicles – at Grove Hill the use was found to be 2.5 %, and when just looking at the direction of travel where the restriction is in place the use amounted to only 1.5% of all vehicles (this is lower than previous surveys carried out indicated in the Technical Note produced in 2021) – and could present some legitimate use since the existing legal order (1987) does allow for exemptions, see above.
Essex currently has not taken up powers to enforce moving traffic offences, therefore at present we were unable to undertake camera enforcement of this type of restriction, Essex would be required to put a strong case forward to the Secretary of State in order for these powers to be granted. For authorities who have been granted these powers in the last year or two, the focus has not been to enforce Environmental Weight Restrictions but instead look to enforce other types of restrictions such as yellow boxes or no-entry restrictions, this is probably because in practice this type of restriction is very difficult to effectively enforce. We have been unable to find evidence of any Local Authority in England who have been granted the powers to enforce moving traffic violations using this to enforce environmental weight limits. Currently, we understand the Government have stalled plans to allow more Local Authorities these powers: DfT stalls moving traffic enforcement roll-out | LocalGov
If we were to consider camera enforcement, it would not be as simple as just installing one camera in Grove Hill and all problems would immediately be solved – we would require a series of cameras which would track and time HGV’s going through the site to ensure they had no alternative route to their destination. Also, it would require administration at Essex (for which there would be additional on-gong cost), we would need to run vehicle keeper checks with the DVLA so that we could contact the correct vehicle owner, we would also require support from an organisation who could take on the enforcement of any unpaid debts if we were to fine HGV’s found to have driven through in opposition to the Legal Order, which would be the intention if cameras could be considered. Enforcement action could also result in legal challenges for which there would potentially be an on-going cost to the organisation, traffic tribunals can result in changes being required to alter signage or add in additional signage/road markings etc. In addition, camera enforcement would still allow for legitimate use to take place, and so some HGV’s including the bus services would still need to use the road in this direction.
The only viable alternative route for HGV’s in this area would be to direct them through Takeley, however we would point out that Takeley already has a significant problem with heavy HGV use due to numerous development in this area and vehicles going to and from Elsenham Pit, which we understand is currently going through the process of extending and increasing their operation licence which could lead to increase use of the main routes through Takeley – there are already hundreds of movements per day which would amount to far more that the current HGV use in Grove Hill. For these reasons we cannot see the residents and Takeley Parish Council being in favour of taking additional HGV’s through their village. There are no other viable alternative routes for HGV’s which could be utilised as an alternative route.
The most appropriate/easiest/cheapest solution to the bottle neck/traffic issues being experienced in Grove Hill would be to remove the existing residents parking bays outside the properties (outside numbers approx. 19 – 29) as this would allow for 2-way traffic flow undisrupted, however it is understood that the residents of those properties currently utilising these bays would be unlikely to agree to their removal – these properties do not have any alternative parking and do not have the depth frontage to have a dropped kerbs installed, any alternative parking which could be utilised by residents would not be in view of the properties and would therefore likely be unpopular and potentially could lower property values here which I am certain would be strongly resisted.
There is no scope for any sort of road widening, due to land constraints and the existing very narrow footway present at this site.
Footway bollards to prevent overrunning on the footways have been previously ruled out due to insufficient footway widths.
For the reasons outlined above it is unlikely that any scheme looking to enforce an HGV restriction in Grove Hill is going to be feasible. – Essex Highways
What next?
A highways sub-committed meeting has been called for the end of August to discuss the report by Essex Highways .