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  • 8 months ago
Local Democracy Reporter Ollie Leader went down to Leeds to speak to residents about the traffic chaos they're facing.
Transcript
00:00Gridlock along an already busy rat run cut through for motorists.
00:07All the result of a wall believed to be hundreds of years old
00:12collapsing along a narrow B road running through Leeds.
00:18Which villagers believe happened when it was hit by a lorry more than a month ago.
00:24It gets worse here every day, it's like a race track through here.
00:28We have Arctic coming through here which shouldn't come through here.
00:31Unless of course it's for the farm up the road there, in which case they've got right of access.
00:35But other than that, everyone uses the cut through.
00:38It's just a nightmare.
00:40Quite often it will be bumber to bumber both ways, whether these lights are here or not.
00:45You can see just how much traffic is really building up along Lower Street
00:50because of these traffic lights.
00:52They are costing the council £500 a day to operate.
00:57And while they are planning to recoup that from the homeowner or the insurance company covering the wall,
01:04it is a difficult situation for a village already beset by lorries that they say aren't suitable for the roads here.
01:14I've had several of my cars actually smashed by vehicles coming down.
01:19Fortunately some stopped and some haven't.
01:22So it's just an ongoing cost.
01:24And unfortunately now it's just impossible to actually park the car outside your own property.
01:29And with the amount of traffic we can't even have the windows open.
01:34Kent County Council say the temporary road closure is required to safely remove debris and make the wall secure.
01:44And once this is complete, the road will reopen to the public while full repairs to the wall will take place off the highway.
01:56Temporary traffic lights in Leeds are a real bane of my life as well as everybody else's life.
02:01Because of course that is one of the roads that I use very regularly.
02:04HGVs are forced to go through there because there is no other way around at the moment.
02:10It's really unfortunate when something like this happens.
02:13But look, viewers can rest assured that my highways department are on it.
02:16They are fixing the problem as quickly as possible.
02:19And we really hope to resume normal service as soon as possible.
02:22I certainly hope so.
02:23It's been a difficult few weeks in the village.
02:27For those living here, the green light for these repairs cannot come soon enough.
02:34Ollie Lieder in Leeds.
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