Our building on the high street has been knocked into by lorries twice in the past few years-the second time the driver failed to stop and was subsequently prosecuted. Anyone can see that the general malaise affecting Wem currently is partly down to the ridiculous traffic that comes down its high street at all hours. The council would be doing a good thing if it diverted these heavy vehicles in my opinion. The roads are simply not suited to them.

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I totally agree that large lorries should be banned from the centre of Wem.

I live on Whitchurch Road and the large lorries cause my house to vibrate. The drivers tend to ignore the speed limits. When leaving Wem they start to accelerate when passing the cemetery.

Tractors with trailers are sometimes a nuisance. The very large ones can cause as many problems as the lorries. There are several of them travelling along Whitchurch Road each hour. As they belong to local farms I’m not sure what an alternative route would be. Perhaps imposing an enforceable 20mph speed limit on tractors and covering the whole of Wem would ease some of the problems.

The water main alongside Whitchurch Road has been fractured several times in the last 12 months. Also the gas main near the medical centre on New Street has been fractured at least a couple of times in the last year. Currently there is a very large pothole over the latest gas main repair which is increasing in size daily. The workmen repairing both sets of pipe claimed that it was the sheer weight of the lorries that had caused the pipes to fracture.

I have complained to Councillor Chris Mellings about the problems and, after a traffic check had been carried out, I was informed that the number of lorries travelling along Whitchurch Road was too small to constitute a problem. I don’t know where the authorities got their results from but they didn’t agree with mine!

It’s very dangerous walking into and around the centre of Wem. The passing lorries drive too close to pedestrians and also have to mount the pavements to negotiate corners or pass parked vehicles. When they do this, pedestrians are often treated with disdain – it’s a question of get out of the way or be run down.

There are many children crossing roads on their way to and from school. We have to consider their welfare.

Let’s make Wem a safer and quieter place to live.

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