Hilton residents demand a bypass

HILTON needs a bypass to cut the risk of accidents and prevent residents being wakened in the early hours by heavy lorries defying a night-time ban. Councillor Ian Bates, who lives in the village and represents it on Cambridgeshire County Council and Hunt

HILTON needs a bypass to cut the risk of accidents and prevent residents being wakened in the early hours by heavy lorries defying a night-time ban.

Councillor Ian Bates, who lives in the village and represents it on Cambridgeshire County Council and Huntingdonshire District Council, will urge the district's traffic management committee on Monday (April 20) to consider all possible measures to improve villagers' quality of life.

He will speak in support of two petitions, signed by a total of 525 people from Hilton's 390 homes, demanding effective traffic solutions for the village.

"I want the engineers to rule nothing out, including a bypass," Cllr Bates told The Hunts Post yesterday.

"We've got traffic calming that's not effective, and we have a lorry ban that's not effective. I know calling for a bypass is like pushing snow up hill, but you have to start somewhere."

The petitioners say the village is divided by the B1040 Potton Road, which carries high volumes of heavy lorries throughout the day, some of them in breach of the 11pm-7am ban. Of the daily average 6,563 vehicles on the main road, nearly 500 were heavy lorries, and volumes are increasing in spite of recession, they say.

They also complain of excessive speeds along the main road, Graveley Way and Fenstanton Road. Recent police surveys showed 75 per cent of vehicles exceeding the 30mph speed limit at the north end of the village, more than a third by a sufficient margin to trigger prosecution, they claim. In Graveley Way 64 per cent exceeded 30mph, 20 per cent of them qualifying for prosecution.

The petitioners are calling for a 24-hour lorry ban, effective traffic calming in Potton Road and Graveley Way and a solution to the problem of speeding across the village green.

They say the police are unable to enforce the weight limit and, although, Cambridgeshire County Council's Trading Standards department has brought successful prosecutions, the council acknowledges that it is hard to identify vehicles that pass through briefly in the dark.

Nonetheless, a trial of "lorry watch" has been undertaken, with volunteers supplying intelligence to Trading Standards, a spokesman said. "We take it very seriously and how it impacts on people's quality of life.