The move comes after damage was caused at the Market Cross roundabout early on Friday morning. Three large overseas wagons came through the town en-route to Scotland after being diverted off the A1. Chris Minikin, headteacher at Montalbo Primary School, was walking his dog at about 5.30am and saw what happened.
“There were three of those big lorries. The second one became stuck between the Market Cross and the wall,” he said. “It was stuck there for quite a while. As it became free, it knocked the coping stones off the wall.”
Mr Minikin reported the incident immediately. The drivers pulled over into the layby on the road down to the Abbey Bridge and were spoken to by Durham Police.
Insp Kevin Tuck said details were given to Durham County Council highways officials and confirmed four coping stones had been dislodged from the wall outside Barclay’s Bank. Durham’s police and crime commissioner Ron Hogg, who is supporting efforts in the dale to tackle the issue of HGVs travelling through Barnard Castle, promised to follow up the incident, adding: “It is imperative that action is taken.”
Adrian White, Durham County Council’s head of transport and contract services, said: “We are planning to carry out further traffic surveys to assess the levels of HGVs going through the town.
“This will include gathering information on the origin and destination of HGV traffic to determine what proportion have business in the town centre or with farms and other firms in the local area and what proportion are using the route as a potential shortcut.
“This will allow us to make further assessments about what can be done to manage traffic through the town and reduce the damage it causes to the Market Cross.
“In order to get fully representative traffic data, the surveys need to be carried out at a time which avoids major holiday periods or seasonal variations in traffic.
“The next such period is September / October and we will look to carry out the surveys then.”
Meanwhile, the results of a structural survey carried out earlier this year are due to be unveiled next month.
Mr White said: “A separate structural survey of the Market Cross building was completed in May 2017 in a project funded by us, the Teesdale Action Partnership and the town council.
“The findings of this survey will be presented at the Teesdale Action Partnership board meeting in July.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.