layby rebuilds squeeze cafes
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by Lee Kimber • The Highways Agency is rebuilding two Leicestershire laybys to make them too small for mobile cafes.
The agency has already closed both laybys on the A14 closest to Junction 6 of the MI, throwing burgerbar owner Dale Willden on the dole. The move deprives truck drivers of refreshment for another 25 miles because a nearby Little Chef refuses to let them park.
Willden says the agency could have avoided the congestion and safety problems it claims were behind the move if it had advertised the stall on roadsigns and installed stakes to stop drivers parking on the layby kerbs.
The move has also annoyed the local council which was going to use its planning powers to stop Willden trading after the agency asked for help at a meeting in 1994. That move now seems pointless as the rebuilding is about to start. "Let's put it this way," says a Harborough Council planning official, "I'd have liked to have known they were going to do it before they did."
Highways Agency officials deny that it has a national campaign to stamp out roadside refreshment bars.