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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

After yet another frustrating Friday stopping lorries and skip trucks (and one coach!) who hurl abuse at me, lie to me and in the case of the coach driver try to punch me, I texted my local agony aunt, the SNT cellphone number. I got a call back from Jono who left me a very long message detailing exactly what was happening on that front:

If you see a lorry using a ladder road as a cut through, please do use your super powers to get the registration number and name of the company (I realise this is hard to do but give it a shot). Send a letter to the transport manager of that company laying out the details of what happened (when, where, registration) and cc both Jono Clay-Michael at the Harringay Safer Neighbourhood team and Rob Curtis at the Haringey Council Heavy Enforcement team (why there is not just one for London I do not know). Jono will take the matter up with Rob as technically the council are responsible for the enforcement of these limits. If we can show that there is a special problem in this area (and I believe there is) then the SNT will be given executive authority to enforce them.

O'Donovan's used to be a very big problem on Lausanne Rd and I took this up on more than one occasion with their manager (big lists of visits and registrations) and he put a note in the drivers pay slips and they've been saints by comparison since. Now this was easier for me because it was the same trucks from the same firm every day but I'd really like it if we at least gave this a crack. If it proves too difficult to get registration numbers at least send the letter anyway indicating time and place.

It would be much less work if we had emails for the people involved:

Tags for Forum Posts: 7.5t, Wightman Road, hgv, lorries, traffic

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I looked for it the other day and finally saw it. It is in the wrong place. If you are a truck driver you will have already committed to making the turn (assuming you see it with all the other road clutter) and are already on the road. The sign needs to be on the traffic lights by the right turn so the driver can decide to make the turn or go straigh on. I know it is a right filter, but I beleive it is the only traffic moving at that time, and it seems that the driver could actually just keep driving forward down Turnpike Lane if they saw the sign in time, and actually did the right thing.
I still think we can buy and use a remote, motion camera with wifi to randomly track vehicles, we can place this in peoples front windows or back of cars (discreetly), we can crop the image down so that the location of the camera is secret.

It needs a nerd, techy to get this in place and as much as I am a nerd, I'm no techy. We don't have the people power to hang on streets for hours on end and no one wants to do that anyway. I am sure this is a viable way of tracking vehicles, then sending all photos to the relevant bodies.

Possibly making posters and laminating them and putting them at the entrance to each road warning large vehicles? Don't know what the legal implications of this are?
Anything over 7.5t should have a "tracker" installed. They key is getting the registration number AND the livery details. I am finding an increasing number of seemingly very large trucks have a gross axle weight of exactly 7490kgs... truck manufacturers playing the system. The thing is, you can't put much in these trucks considering their size, their axles would break! As for the enormous vans that go up and down the ladder slowly looking in our front gardens, why all you could probably fit in those is a couple of motorbikes...

Now that Wightman Rd has access restrictions I think this should be a LOT easier to sort out. We can't do much about the vehicles that may possibly have a legitimate reason to be on our pathetic little speed humped roads but the 22t earth clearing lorries and their like should be easy to "prosecute". The next thing my neck of the woods needs is a 7.5t access restriction on Willoughby Rd and then we just need to look at Wightman Rd.

Speaking of "prosecute", apparently the council have a plan that they are going to being trialling in 2 weeks in conjunction with the SNT. I'm skeptical that it will work long term but I've been wrong before (lots!).

This: Possibly making posters and laminating them and putting them at the entrance to each road warning large vehicles? Don't know what the legal implications of this are?
is an excellent idea Birdy. I think a bit of intimidation rather than actual prosecutions would work best. By the time we get to actually issuing tickets I think we've lost. Enough will go to appeal and win that we'd be inundated. We just need to make the truck drivers *think* that there's a high chance they'll get in trouble with their bosses and tolerate the odd infringement.

Three years ago I would be woken every morning by an O'Donovan's skip truck (empty) as they hit the first speed hump in my street (I am the fifth). This no longer happens which I guess I should consider a small victory (although it did help that I had a moment to get the pencil and paper ready).
If they ignore the statutory limit signs, I'm not sure they would take any notice of laminated posters. If we had a blitz and everybody kept a camera at the ready to record reg numbers and company names and then reported them to the Council, the Police and the Transport Manager of the company concerned I'm sure the companies would take action against their own drivers to avoid being fined.

One company persistently offending is Serco, who run prison vans up and down Wightman.
They (Serco) have convoys, two or three vans and their monster big truck.
And this morning I got this reply from Serco!

From: Lesley Javes [mailto:Lesley.Javes@serco.com]
Sent: 14 October 2010 10:13
To: McMullan, John, GBM
Subject: Serco Prison Truck BX54 RXY

Mr McMullan

Many thanks for your email regarding the prison truck using Wightman Road . We are investigating your complaint and have suspended use of this road until we have completed our investigation regarding the suitability of this road for use by our vehicles. Kerry Hastings, from our Court and Escort Custody Services is conducting the investigation and I have asked her to respond to you directly.

If I can be of any further help, please do not hesitate to contact me.


Lesley Javes
PA Company Secretarial
Serco Group plc
Serco House
16 Bartley Wood Business Park
Bartley Way
Hook, Hampshire
RG27 9UY
T +44 (0)1256 744278
F 44 (0)1256 744359
M 0771 819 4057
Lesley.javes@serco.com
do i understand that this lorry, that i followed up effingham and on to wightman yesterday is over 7.5 tonnes?
Attachments:
It is. But you have to be sure that it isn't going to drop/pickup on Effingham/Wightman. There is a lot of scaffolding work going on at the |Greek church for example.
hmm, i turned off onto hewitt and it carried on... spose best err on the side of caution, even though it's unlikely to be doing a job on a sunday.
That would be this company. They are based here. I imagine they're using our roads at the moment because the north circular is just gridlock north of us.

I suggest you send them these photos and remind them that Effingham is 7.5t access only and now so is Wightman. I assume you can still remember the time and date and you have the registration number. They worst that can happen is you get it wrong (which I do sometimes). Meh.
Definitely

Mind you, the printed date/time is not too convincing :-)
Lausanne Rd, Friday morning (guess what):
The morning traffic jam in Lausanne Rd, London N8
Yes a traffic jam (it lasts about an hour every morning) and an infringement of the 7.5t access only limits.

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