Worries raised over 'juggernaut' HGVs using narrow country lanes in Calderdale

Laws which give agricultural vehicles legal right to use narrow countryside roads like many in Calderdale, the geography of the place and satellite navigation signalling unsuitable routes, all cause issues for the council.

Calderdale councillor Amanda Parsons-Hulse highlighted incidents with lorries using rural Raw End Road, Halifax, which links Warley and Luddenden Foot.

“In the last six months there’s at least three that I am aware of, juggernauts just hurling down, in some cases going through the wall,” she said.

Coun Parsons-Hulse (Lib Dem, Warley) asked for some clear signs saying “no HGVs” and wondered if the council could have a conversation with Google Maps about routing.

Deputy Leader of Calderdale Council, Coun Jane Scullion said Calderdale’s geography, legal rights of way for some types of vehicle and satellite navigation all made it difficult.

She agreed many historic routes were not suitable some vehicles of the modern era.

On the main A646 in the upper Calder Valley, some farmers placed signs of their own at turn-offs saying “no satnav to Burnley” after drivers had been directed there and come to grief, she told a full meeting of Calderdale Council.

“What might have been good for a packhorse is not quite so good for large vehicles,” she agreed.

Coun Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said the council tried to look at those issues in the round and would ask the council’s highways authority to look at the issue again.