Residents living near Thirsk Industrial Estate are facing antisocial behaviour from lorry drivers on their doorsteps for an indefinite period after a council decided a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) could not be launched there yet as it would simply push the issue elsewhere.
As Hambleton District Council’s cabinet approved extending a PSPO forbidding overnight lorry parking on Leeming Bar Industrial Estate for a further three years, it emerged the authority had postponed long-awaited plans to launch a similar measure at the Thirsk estate near the A19.
Residents and traders at both industrial estates have suffered years of antisocial behaviour and from lorry drivers parking overnight, leaving litter and human waste behind.
Lorry drivers ‘ groups have repeatedly highlighted the lack of overnight parking facilities in North Yorkshire and have claimed they have little alternative to parking on industrial estates.
The cabinet meeting heard numerous councillors herald the impact of the PSPO which had been introduced in 2019 in Leeming Bar, with a view to launching another order in Thirsk if the action proved successful.
Bedale area councillors also welcomed a move to issue fixed penalty notices rather than warning leaflets to drivers breaking the ban in Leeming Bar and action to stop noisy refrigerated trailer units being left running on the estate’s roads overnight.
Ward councillor John Noone said “disgusting” behaviour by the lorry drivers had had a big impact on the local community for a long time.
He said: “There has always been enforcement and tickets issued, but not very many. Lately quite a lot of the drivers have thght they’ll give me another leaflet, I’ll get away with this again. This is the right approach to start ticketing as soon as possible.”
Councillor Dave Elders highlighted how introducing a PSPO in Thirsk had been delayed due to a lack of alternative places for lorry drivers to park overnight.
The authority’s leader Councillor Mark Robson said he hoped the recent planning approval for 32 lorry parking spaces, alongside a petrol station, a shop and a drive-through cafe, on farmland on the opposite side of York Road would alleviate the issue.
He said: “Until there’s an alternative location for them to go it would be pointless putting an order on the Thirsk industrial park for obvious reasons that they would disperse to somewhere else because they haven’t got a correct place to go.
“I don’t know what the build time for the fuel station truck park is, but I would suspect it is in excess of the time left within this authority and it will be for the new authority to take that up.
“I would hope that isn’t correct and this authority would bring it in before it demises in April 2023, but looking at the timeline of what it has taken to get the Leeming one to where we are I suspect it will be one for the new authority.”
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