THE boss of a haulage firm at the centre of a planning row says he has “jumped through every hoop” to satisfy people objecting to his trucks.

Edward Robinson, managing director of Robinsons of Worcester, has hit out at suggestions his trucks are too big for the country lanes around his yard at Home Farm at Besford, near Pershore.

Mr Robinson is applying for retrospective permission to park 15 trailers and 11 tractor units on the site, where his family have run an agricultural haulage firm carrying livestock and grain for more than a decade.

But people in the area have raised a petition against the plans, complaining the trucks could cause accidents.

Wychavon District Council planners put off making a decision at their last meeting, despite a recommendation of approval from planning officers.

At that meeting, objector Len Miller said the trucks had caused “near misses” on the roads and were too big for the lanes.

But Mr Robinson says if there had been any problem with the roads highways engineers would have put a weight limit on the routes.

Worcestershire County Council, which maintains the roads, has not raised any objection to the proposals.

And the firm has already been granted a licence to run the vehicles by government agency VOSA, which controls truck operation nationally.

“We’ve jumped through every hoop the authorities have asked us to,” said Mr Robinson.

“The planning officers have looked at our application in great detail, highways are satisfied and so are VOSA, so I don’t understand why people are objecting. All I am trying to do is run a business and keep people in their jobs.”

He pointed out that lorries from other firms, farm traffic and buses all ran through the same area without triggering any complaints.

“If our lorries were not on these roads, other companies’ lorries would be because there is no restriction on these roads against trucks,” he said.

The matter goes before planners again on Thursday, June 23.