Issue 508 – Monitoring scheme could help Westbury fight extra heavy traffic

PLANS to introduce a new weight limit along the A36 in Bath – which could direct extra heavy traffic into Westbury – have been delayed by three months.
The delay has been agreed so that a monitoring scheme can be put in place to ascertain how the limit affects alternative routes, one of which runs through Westbury.

An 18-tonne environmental weight restriction along the A36 in Bath had been proposed to start this month, meaning that heavy goods vehicles travelling along the current route from the north of Bath and the M4 would be unable to continue their journey south out of Bath along the A36. There are fears that such a restriction will cause heavy goods vehicles to take a route out of Bath through Staverton, Trowbridge, Yarnbrook, and Westbury, before rejoining the A36 outside of Warminster.
Wiltshire Council is among those who have raised concerns regarding the increase of traffic on alternative routes, and has requested that the implementation of a trial order is delayed for three months to enable them to put a monitoring regime in place. They will put traffic counters down on roads they consider could be affected by an increase in HGVs, to collect both before and after data.