Village creates by-law to try to stop lorries using cut through

A Lincolnshire village has introduced a by-law to prevent lorries from using it as a "cut-through".

HGVs regularly pass through Baston, near Bourne, to access local quarries and businesses.

Baston Parish Council said it believed the rule to attempt to limit access may be the first of its kind.

But Lincolnshire County council said the by-law would rely on police enforcement and could end up wasting taxpayers' money.

Baston Parish Council said they had spent 12 years "trying every type of persuasion, argument, discussion with Lincolnshire County Council Highways department to have 7.5 tonne weight limits" in the village.

They said their requests were denied so the council passed a by-law allowing them to apply the limit and erect signs.

A by-law is a kind of law which only affects a certain area.

David Plant, Chairman of the Baston Parish Council said he was "not aware this has ever been done before in the UK. It probably will be a first."

But Councillor Richard Davies, Executive Councillor for Highways at Lincolnshire County council said the bylaw could "achieve nothing".

"It relies on enforcement and if Lincolnshire Police aren't going to enforce the weight limit then you could spend thousands of pounds worth of taxpayers' money putting a traffic regulation order in place only for it to achieve nothing," he said.

Baston Parish Council said it hoped the rule would be "self-policing".

"We obviously can't police it, but then every road in the UK has a speed limit, you don't have a policeman standing next to one of those policing it," chairman David Plant said.

"I think HGV drivers are genuinely pretty good people. I think they would see the 7.5 tonne weight limit and most of them would abide by it."

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