I know what the Council’s priority issues will be:

That Sunday trading means yet another day of misery for those local residents who live on the sugar beet route…

We receive the same complaints every year:

– lorries driving towards the factory very early in the morning, starting at 4am ( I know the gates don’t open that early, but lorries go by much earlier, park up near Cantley and wait…). Residents have invited factory managers to stay in their homes over night to experience the noise!

– The noise of passing lorries, all day, every couple of minutes, made worse by the sunken manhole covers resulting from the installation of the new gas main for the factory, full lorries and then empty, rattling lorries on the way back

– lorries being driven through the village in excess of the 40mph speed limit – we’ve all seen it. I have followed lorries through the village at 45 to 50 mph despite flashing speed signs. The flashing speed signs are activated all the time as drivers exceed the speed limit. It is impossible as a sole driver to record the numberplate of the vehicles to report them to yourselves but residents have been encouraged to report all drivers seen driving too fast

– the resultant risk to pedestrians crossing the road, many of whom are elderly, and to drivers exiting Chapel Road and the village hall

– regular reports of general bad behaviour from drivers, both in Beighton and the heavy vehicles pulling across the A47 in front of cars travelling at 50mph and more at the White House junction, causing cars to brake to avoid collision

We have had residents in tears at our meetings when they report all this. Every year I write to the factory and to the police, asking for improvements. Every year this continues….

I suspect residents are going to be very upset about the proposal to open the factory to deliveries on Sundays as it is their one day of peace.

If a factory manager would be available to attend our meeting on Tuesday, 13th September at 8.00pm in the village hall, that would be great.