Lorries - Trust Annual Report 1982
Winchester is reasonably well protected from through lorry traffic. Nevertheless there is growing concern in the Trust that more heavy lorries are entering the City than have business here, and that the very heavy or very large lorries, (whether they are seeking access to the City or just passing through), are potentially damaging dangerous and unpleasant. Damage to the physical fabric can be direct, by impact (buildings and pavements) or by fatigue (old foundations, sewers etc.), or indirect through pressures on the local authorities to make engineering provision for such vehicles, (as, for example, the now fortunately abandoned Colebrook Street widening). Following the publication of the Armitage Report the Government intends to permit larger, heavier lorries and the Trust has been seeking some protection for cities like Winchester in the legislation. Extended correspondence with the Department of Transport, through Winchester's MP, has established that the Government knows little or nothing about the damaging power of heavy vehicles, and nothing has been offered in the way of protective measures.
The Trust is at present lobbying the Local Authorities to establish some degree of control over access to sensitive areas. It should be possible to use existing legislation to redirect the not insignificant lorry traffic that enters Winchester by mistake, and to take measures to stop pavement mounting.