Is it just me or does it seem a bit strange that all the suppliers to the COOP at Andover have a message that states that they must get to that site fron the A303, and must NOT use the A342 through Ludgershall or a £500 fine will be levied. If you are going to that site you along the A342 from Swindon (through Marlborough) when you get to Collingbourne Ducis you have to take a right onto the A338 and add an extra 5 miles to your journey and go through a very tight corner in the village when the normal route would be much safer and more straightforward.
Do the people on that enforced route know that their council is increasing heavy transport past their homes?
Who has decided that the longer and less safe route is the correct one?
Is it possible to fine lorries for using a route without weight, height or width limits solely based on their destination?
This is a new depot so may have had to make reassurances to the council that it would not increase heavy traffic on certain roads, but is the fine B.S.? or could it just result in banning from site? Surely if its the latter then that would be a better threat as I don’t believe the fines could ever be legally enforced.
The biggest problem I have with this is that there are already HUGE industrial estates on and at the end of this road and there are no restrictions on lorries delivering to them.
Anyone think a local Councillor owns a house on this road and is thinking of themself more than the local economy?
Has anyone actually been fined for using this route?
The last time I used that road there was no weight limit, and how do the Co-Op know your delivering to them, check with the boss see what he/she says.
mike68:
The last time I used that road there was no weight limit, and how do the Co-Op know your delivering to them, check with the boss see what he/she says.
I checked at the desk I check in at and was told “Your company pays their tax, come in whatever way you want”.
But on the other hand a few weeks ago the security guard came up to me and said “I’m supposed to bollock you but I’ll just let you know that it’s been noted you came in the wrong way and your company could be fined for it”.
So somehow they do know, Ive had no comeback yet from the company (It was a good few weeks ago now)I work for but have Kept the access maps I was given that show the route through Ludgershall just in case. 
I now use the “approved route” but it pulls my plonker to know I’m just obeying a rule thought up (probably by a councillor looking after their own interests) with no legal backing as far as I know. 
I work at the site. There are cameras all over the junction around the entrance. They do and have fined us. Only coop trucks I am aware about! Several agency have been told not to come back. Don’t know how it works if a road is shut and you have to divert?
You may get round it by turning left into the ind est at wayhill and cutting through to ring road then back down to roundabout. The camera for wayhill road is just as you go through 40mph signs going upto roundabout.
I think it’s all down to the o licence. That’s why there is HGV traffic lights on exit too.
schrodingers cat:
when you get to Collingbourne Ducis you have to take a right onto the A338 and add an extra 5 miles to your journey and go through a very tight corner in the village when the normal route would be much safer and more straightforward.
The S bend by the church in Collingbourne heading for Tidworth is alot worse than the corner by Ludgershall Castle!
I wonder if Co-op would ask that the fire appliance from Ludgershall routes via Tidworth should anything untoward happen at their RDC
Mark22_2:
I think it’s all down to the o licence. That’s why there is HGV traffic lights on exit too.
Does the bloke in that security building control those lights?
Not sure if he hits a button as such?!
I think it’s a computer program that does around 80 moves a hour so plenty really. Just don’t miss the green light like I did the other day and sit there waiting like a ■■■■■ lol
They must have ironed out the bugs in the light system as they have stuck the hight barrier up so HGVs have to divert into the lane.
Not bad enough they try to ■■■■ us about when on site in these ■■■■■■■■■ but now they think they have the right to tell us what to do on the public road. This job is gone to the dogs as for the traffic lights on the way out, why are they there? Why does the cars not have to stop at pointless lights? just the scum of the earth truckers.
O licence limits 80 ( ish ) moves an hour. It’s the same sort of restriction as Sainsburys Waltham point.
How the hell can you be fined for driving on a road legally ? There is nothing at our Culina depot telling us which way to get there its all b/s.
I only know of COOP trucks getting the fine so far.
Sounds like a nimby Councillor who forgets who feeds him, I have become used to it, nut cases in their pajamas wielding a camera because you turned up 5 minutes before the end of the curfew, another eejit with his camcorder who’s house had been built after the store had opened, top of the list was the nutter in Torquay who threw a large terracotta plant pot at me from a block of flats because my fridge had woken him.
I drive for nobbies who also run the site at Andover, we deliver there a lot and have no route warnings up in our traffic office, so can only assume that like has been said before it’s only relevant to co op trucks.
Its for outside suppliers aswell. Well that what we were told when i worked in goods in.