Stagecoach ‘in breach of weight restriction’

I HAVE contacted the Department for Transport previously regarding weight limit signage and buses, as we have a local bridge in Alconbury with a weight restriction of three or 3.5 tonnes, with no exceptions attached to the sign. Similarly on the town bridge in Huntingdon there is a limit of 7.5 tonnes, again with no exceptions attached.

I contacted DfT again the morning after the meeting at Alconbury Sports and Social Club regarding the Alconburys losing the 46 service. I have yet to have a reply from the Department for Transport.

Stagecoach Buses are now withdrawing the service through Alconbury and Alconbury Weston and leaving two communities without a service in approximately two weeks’ time.

I feel DfT and the Cambridgeshire Constabulary should be prosecuting Stagecoach Buses for each and every time the cross either of these bridges, which they have damaged in the past, as I have yet to see a normal-sized bus, either single or double decker, using these bridges that has an unladen weight less than the permitted maximum weight restriction for either bridge.

Retrospective prosecution should also be considered as they have been warned before, so I am told, of these illegalities whereby they threatened to stop the service.

As we are losing this service (No 46 Huntingdon-Peterborough, as well as several over the Huntingdon town bridge) there is not a lot to lose.

Failure to prosecute should not be an option, nor should they just amend the signs to accommodate.

ROGER PAPWORTH

Church Way

Alconbury Weston