Parking ban leaves trucks vulnerable
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by Juliet Morrison • Furious tipper owners are threatening legal action to force local councillors to waive a ban on parking their trucks overnight at their depot.
The group of more than 40 tippermen says a prohibition against parking at the site after 18:00hrs makes their trucks easy prey for criminals.
The restriction has been written into the planning permission for Bardon Roadstone's West Drayton site in London. Until 1991 Buckinghamshire County Council had allowed the group to operate out of the allowed hours in busy periods. But after receiving complaints from local residents about the noise from the trucks the coun
cil felt it could no longer do this.
The owner-drivers, who have to park their tippers outside their homes and on laybys, have now had enough. They say the council has an obligation to provide a safe place for them to leave their trucks.
"The trucks are going from under our noses—three have been stolen from owner-drivers working at West Drayton." says owner-driver Dave Clark.
The council is concerned that the owner-drivers may he breaking the law by parking their trucks outside their hous. es. It says if Bardon Roadstone can prove that the trucks can operate without disturbing residents it is prepared to re-consider the case.