Leicestershire haulage giant slams road closure plans

Pall-Ex has criticised Leicestershire County Council’s “inadequate” and “risky” road closure and diversion plans, which would cause major disruption for residents close to the Ellistown-based logistics firm.

The haulage firm is railing against parts of the B585 closing for up to six weeks over the school summer holidays, due to work beginning on a new development at Mountpark Bardon.

The work will divert up to 600 Pall-Ex lorries through Ravenstone and Ibstock every night and 100 every day during July and August, causing serious safety and congestion issues.

Pall-Ex is now pressing the Council for a delay in works beginning while it focuses efforts on finding a solution to the situation, working with Mountpark Bardon to remove the need for diversions.

Pall-Ex has estimated that the proposed 22-mile diversion will cost Pall-Ex and its network members of SMEs £300,000 in fuel costs alone.

Kevin Buchanan, Group managing director, said: “Our immediate concern is one of safety for local residents. We want to minimise disruption and congestion, and we hope the Council will respond to the needs of the local community.

“We are critical of the Council for issuing a license for this work without consultation; the scale of the disruption makes its two-week notice period completely inadequate. This risky work is due to take place during the school summer holidays, which we believe is unsafe, and these villages are not built to take the traffic levels that this diversion will create.

“We’ve engaged with the Council at every level to try and mitigate this situation and have put our plans to protest on hold while we liaise with Mountpark Bardon. We’re now calling on the Council to halt the required road closures until a proper consultation with local residents and local businesses has taken place.”