HGV clamp scheme to continue in town

DfT approves council’s request for crackdown

A HGV clamping trial will be continued indefinitely - but other Kent councils don’t appear to be taken by the idea.

The trial, which saw illegally parked lorries clamped on the first occasion and fined £150, was the first in the UK and served as a test before being rolled out nationally.

HGV drivers were banned from parking overnight from October 2017 to March this year on a fivemile stretch of the A20 between Charing and the Drovers roundabout.

The experiment - which also covered four industrial estates in the town between 8pm and 7am - saw 2,754 trucks impeded and was hailed as a success by Ashford Borough Council (ABC).

The clamping restarted this week after ABC’s petitioned the Department for Transport (Dft) through a letter.

At a joint transportation board meeting last Wednesday, ABC’s civil enforcement team leader Catherine Darlington said: “We’ve been in talks with the DfT and it has agreed we can continue to clamp on the first offence and that the release fee it £150.

“We’re due to start clamping with our existing provider.

“This has gone through and our team is in place to continue clamping.”

When asked whether anyone else is taking up the scheme, the council officer said: “We have had a lot of interest districts across the country, other places like Leicester, but not many places locally as Kent County Council made it clear that Ashford’s trialling it.”

Cllr Paul Bartlett (Con) conveyed the gratitude of residents near to the trial’s catchment zone and thanked the clamping team for their efforts.

Thousands of trucks were clamped from October 2017