The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Businesses and residents in Holbeach hope the town’s days as a traffic bottleneck are numbered.
The countdown is on to end a road closure which has caused jams through the town centre.
In the meantime, town councillors are hoping the county authority can put a halt to the HGVs ignoring the signs and thundering through.
The A151 link road to the busy Peppermint Junction on the A17 has been closed since July, causing Holbeach to become an HGV hotspot, with hundreds of lorries rumbling through the town at all hours.
Holbeach town councillors and residents are concerned the current bad situation will spiral if the road does not re-open on time.
The road is due to reopen on September 4, but Lincolnshire County Council couldn’t confirm at the time of going to press that the work was on schedule.
Holbeach shop owner Dave Hudson has run Toto Shoes on the crossroads at the centre of town for six years.
On Monday morning he counted more than 70 large lorries passing his shop.
“I was into double figures in ten minutes,” he said.
“These are articulated HGVs, not just little lorries. We’ve had lorries going past full of pigs, flour, it’s laughable.”
Mr Hudson said he worried the increase in heavy traffic would cause damage to Market Hill.
“My concern is that the Market Hill can’t cope with it. There’ll be a collapse and the Peppermint Junction bill will go up.”
Signs at the edge of town divert traffic back along the A16 in an attempt to avoid Holbeach centre. But Mr Hudson said it wasn’t enough.
“No matter how much signage they put out, unless they police it the lorry drivers and traffic managers will take no notice because they just want the shortest route.”
Mr Hudson has contacted both Lincolnshire County Council and
Holbeach Hurn ward councillor Nick Worth about the issue.
At the August Holbeach Parish Council meeting last Monday, Coun Isobel Hutchinson was among several councillors who proposed writing to Lincoln County Council Highways Department regarding the disruption.
“We appreciate that the work will cause disruption but even though the diversion is in place lorries are choosing to ignore it,” Coun Hutchinson told The Voice.
“As the schools will soon be back my concern is that if the road is not open the congestion in the town will get worse at peak time, causing gridlock. We would therefore like clarification from highways as to when they hope to have the road reopened.”
There was also call from the council for a weight restriction through the town once the work was complete.
The Peppermint Junction Roundabout project is set to cost around £5.4m and is due to be completed in February 2018. The A151 closed on July 24 and will remain so “for around six weeks”, says the county council website.
