Before we go any further I don’t really want to get them off the roads completely. There is a place for them but it certainly isn’t delivering to our local Tesco Express.
To be precise, the WATERLOOVILLE LAVENDER ROAD EXPRESS.
Lavender Road is a residential road leading off Frendstaple Road. It is the main access to a number of private homes, an old folks home and the local doctors surgery as well as being the address for the aforementioned Tesco store which has a car park capable of taking nearly 20 vehicles.
This road is regularly compromised by the parking up of articulated lorries which are waiting their turn to deliver goods to the store. They are usually waiting because there is already an articulated lorry offloading.
Any vehicle parked in this spot would be causing a hazard but an articulated lorry is well over 40 feet long. If a car was parked in this spot you do have some chance of seeing around it and even some visibility through the windows. An articulated lorry doesn’t give you any visibility through the vehicle, it is significantly wider than a car and also higher.
- Quite often lorries parked here do so facing the wrong way. That is to say it is parked on the right hand side of the road, facing the oncoming traffic who, if they are turning left into Lavender Road, cannot see if there is anything coming towards them until they are already exposed.
I guess the direction they are facing doesn’t really matter since the obstruction is the same either way. - The folks who were lucky enough to have safely made it into the car park and now wish to leave cannot see round the back end of the trailer (or front) to see those vehicles that are also playing Russian Roulette and about to make the dash along the far side of the trailer.
- At peak times in the morning i.e. during the school run this road at its junction with Frendstaple Road becomes very busy. With an articulated lorry parked just short of the junction to say this road becomes congested is an understatement
If there hasn’t already been an accident caused by these trucks I will be very surprised.
The current weather / road conditions has exacerbated the situation. I was witness to latest milk delivery when the truck driver was struggling to turn his vehicle around so that he could reverse up to the Tesco loading dock. Needless to say his 40ft trailer did not want to go where he wanted it to go as it skated from side to side on the ice. During his many attempts access to the doctor’s surgery, the old folks home and a number of private houses was completely blocked.
Come on Tesco. This is dangerous. Its time for you to rethink the delivery options to your local stores before you cause the death of one of your customers.
WrAnTz 