Guest 706- Registered: 25 Oct 2010
- Posts: 285
It seems that it's always been a problem but the sheer amount of rubbish, on the verges as you drive up to the Whitfield roundabout,is diabolical.
I should imagine that some council managers drive up that road. They must be very blinkered to it.
You would think that a good impression would count or a lot to help our town's image,but the paper,cans and many bottles of lorry drivers urine is quite disgusting.
And I know it's been windy lately and rubbish gets blown around but the town centre looks full of it. Has the council cut down on street cleaning lately?
Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
For most of the morning workers were picking up rubbish on whitfield hill. a tiresome and dangerous job.
beer the food of the gods
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
I'd imagine that was KCC Highways job but with 1000s of miles of roads it must be an endless job :(
Been nice knowing you :)
If someone moved on the sodding lorries from the lay bys it might help. They park overnight and poke their backsides out into the road - it's phenomenally dangerous. Why don't the police act?
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Was that their backsides Bern, or their lorries ??
Roger
Roger, that made me laugh out loud! The lorries.....mostly!
Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
Not defending them in any way but the reason it happens is that lorry drivers can only drive a certain amount of hours a day. And in the UK there are not enough facilities for drivers to park which is why i will always work on the continent if i can.
beer the food of the gods
Guest 686- Registered: 5 May 2009
- Posts: 556
You'll also find that drivers prefer to park in UK to avoid the risk of picking up unwanted passengers on the other side of the channel.
Now, if there were a decent truck-stop of two in the area.....!
As for the litter problem, that's not all down to truckers I'm sure.
Phil West
If at first you don't succeed, use a BIGGER hammer!!
Guest 672- Registered: 3 Jun 2008
- Posts: 2,119
As I remember.........a long time ago
A driver leaving the docks ( out of Hours ) can drive to the nearest parking station, IE Ashford.
The only lorries you ever see parked along the motorway lay-bys and anywhere else are foreign truckers.
NO CHARGE, and leave all their bodily fluids behind and anything else they don't want.
How often do you see a car parked there. GET RID OF THE LAY-BYS.
grass grows by the inches but dies by the feet.
Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
Some east european drivers are paid £40 a day it costs £28 to park at Ashford also if stopped by the French they dont accept that as a reason for going over your hours, and wether the offence was comitted in France or not they will do you.
beer the food of the gods
Guest 672- Registered: 3 Jun 2008
- Posts: 2,119
France and England are two different planets to foreign truckers Guz and they know who or where they can get away with it.
And Kent is the place.
grass grows by the inches but dies by the feet.
Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
In France they provide adequate parking with toilets we don't
beer the food of the gods
Guest 686- Registered: 5 May 2009
- Posts: 556
Which is why a cheap truck stop a lot closer than Ashford is needed - and not just for Op. Stack!
Phil West
If at first you don't succeed, use a BIGGER hammer!!
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
What about the one at Whitfield - Old Park ? I understood their charges were much less than at junction 11 and facilities were very good - if the driver buys a meal or has a shower, some of their parking costs were reduced or refunded.
I can't remember the name but I'll try and find out.
I agree that something needs to be done about the waste they leave behind and their dangerous parking. Also, if there was a genuine need for a car-driver to pull in a lay-by, there'd be no room for them.
Truck-drivers do need good, clean, cheap facilities and those are they only ones I know locally.
The EU can solve everything, I'm surprised they haven't come up with an answer.
Roger
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
because no one has asked or put the problem to them roger.
Frankly, as a driver who drives many miles for work I am sick of not being able to get into lay bys for my own health and safety- they are stuffed full to literally overflowing with foreign lorries and littered with literally crap . Those signs that tell me that tiredness kills and I should take a break are a joke. I am also tired of those lorries who park on slip roads - SLIP ROADS - apparently unchallenged by our local police.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Maybe that's where the answer is Bern - with the Police; more enforcement. If the lorries badly parked in the lay-bys, were checked for road-worthiness, then perhaps the drivers would get the message and park in a proper lorry park.
Roger
Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
Roger the truckstop you refered to is priority freight, and every time i have been there to pick a load up it is fulll £20 pound a night i beleive. Bern as others have said lorry drivers have to stop they have no choice we need more parking places that is the only solution.
beer the food of the gods
Sue Nicholas- Location: river
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 6,025
Yes I observed the men picking up litter as I travelled up Whitfiels Hill yesterday .Why does this need to be done, because people are too lazy to take their rubbish home .We do need more facilities for truck drivers the lack of facilities on our motor ways is disgusting.
Guest 686- Registered: 5 May 2009
- Posts: 556
The parking on slip-roads problem arises, I think, because it is permitted in some European countries.
Doing a road-worthiness check in a lay-by could be interesting, especially if VOSA can't get their vehicle into the lay-by in the first place!! I'm not entirely sure it would solve the problem though.
There was an attempt at re-designing the lay-bys on the A20 to prevent the more dangerous parking but the contractors got it wrong in some places when they put the pillars too far back from the curb. As far as I can tell the idea was to restrict the entry/exit width to stop trucks parking on the verge. But they just park on the entry and exit and block the lay-by completely. One of the lay-bys, designed to take three trucks, actually had eight in it when I came by last night!
It seems obvious, at least to me, that parking and facilities for truckers is severely lacking in Dover. Dover is the major cross-channel port catering for some 2.5 million freight vehicles annually. That equates to nearly 7,000 vehicles a day arriving or departing the port. Both Dunkerque and Calais manage to provide substantial free parking areas which are invariably full overnight yet Dover does not. Is it any wonder, then, that truckers will park wherever they can find a space; be that lay-bys on the A2/A20 or on local roads around town.
Where parking is unserviced then the litter problem will arise. The lay-bys are serviced, and litter bins provided at least. It's just a great pity that a dedicated parking facility has not been provided adjacent to the port. Actually, it has just occurred to me that parking areas were actually removed from the Eastern Docks to allow for port expansion, and from the Western Docks to give HMRC space for customs clearance facilities. Both these areas were well used at one time and their removal has meant that the traffic has to go somewhere else.
Phil West
If at first you don't succeed, use a BIGGER hammer!!
