Derby weight limit 'unenforceable'
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LOCAL COUNCILLORS have been left red-faced after they ignored the results of their own research and slapped weight limits on two roads in Derby.
Both bans have now been branded as unenforceable.
Chief Inspector Paul Berry, Derbyshire's head of road policing, says the ban is impossible to police. This is because the 7.5-tonne limit excludes local deliveries, which make up the vast majority of freight journeys on the roads in question.
Even the council's own survey suggests that 86% of the 500 HGVs each day using the A314 in Chellaston and the Afi Shard Low Rd were working for local firms.
A police spokeswoman says: "The bottom line is that because most of them are using these routes legitimately it would be counter-productive to enforce it — we would be holding up lots of innocent drivers."
The ban came into force last November and is still in place, even though council officers agreed with the police and recommended the removal of the restriction.
The council spokeswoman says: "The councillors decided they would keep it anyway despite the recommendation." Council estimates suggested that the 7.5-tonne limit would remove 75 trucks a day from the roads: local residents say a la number of trucks on the roads not making local deliveries.