Residential roads used by lorries for overnight parking

Worcestershire County Councillor and Warndon parish councillor, John Buckley, said some roads in Warndon Villages were being used as an overnight lorry park.

He said Wainwright Road and Brindley Road were particularly clogged up with lorries as drivers broke up their journeys.

Coun Buckley said: "This morning I toured the area and found there was a total of 14 lorries parked." At Warndon Parish Council, he said many of the vehicles - the majority of which are from abroad - contained noisy refrigerators which ran throughout the night keeping residents awake.

Coun Buckley said he thought drivers were attracted to the area, which is near the M5, because it contained a takeaway and also a supermarket.

"The question that has got to be asked is where are the toilet facilities?" he added. "We feel they could be using the area as the toilet, because there is nothing open at that time."

Coun Buckley said it was important that a new official site was found to solve the problem.

Tom Comerford, district liaison engineer for Worcestershire County Council said the Council's Freight Quality Partnership, a group made up of the authority's officers, the police, logistics operators, the Road Haulage Association and the Freight Transport Association, was looking into the problem. "There is obviously a need for overnight parking if people are parking on the roads," he said.

"One of the things we are looking at is to identify a new off-highway site," said Mr Comerford.

He said the current Croft Road site, near Worcester city centre, was well used and that a new one was needed near the motorway.

Although an alternative has not yet been identified, Mr Comerford said that a number of sites were currently being considered.

There are just too many learner drivers - It's not just lorries clogging up the streets of Warndon Villages - learner drivers have become very keen on the area, too.

Coun Buckley said learners are constantly using Corfe Avenue, Tamworth Drive, Goodrich Drive and Hastings Drive to practise - much to the annoyance of residents and other drivers.

"Lots of people in the Warndon Villages have been complaining to me about the amount of manoeuvring that's been going on," he said. "There seems to be a route that all the learner drivers are being encouraged to use, which means there are one or two roads, such as Corfe Avenue that are taking the majority of them.

"I suspect these are part of a test route."

Coun Buckley said the problem was inconveniencing residents and endangering other roads users, with learners reversing around corners from the main Hastings Drive into adjoining streets, forcing other drivers on to the wrong side of the road.

"The issue for residents is that it is one car after another which is really causing distress to a lot of local people," he said. "I am not against people learning to drive, but I am exploring if this can be spread more widely."

Coun Buckley said he had been working with driving schools in Worcester to try to remedy the situation, as well as writing to the testing authority to if the area is part of a main test route.