Villagers residing on ‘tenterhooks’ after HGVs damage their tranquil residence

The lives of villagers are being made hell after a warehouse caused a slew of huge lorries to clog up their narrow country lanes, causing constant noise, accidents and blaring horns.

Locals in the picturesque village of Goxhill are up in arms after a nearby warehouse was expanded 10 years ago – bringing hundreds of 44 tonne lorries rumbling along their country roads.

What should be an idyllic peaceful location for the families living in the North Lincolnshire parish is instead a living nightmare with trucks taking over the tranquility and causing carnage from constant noise, accidents and beeping of horns.

Police have confirmed the traffic conditions are ‘unsafe and unsuitable for HGVs’.

The main problem is that Church Side in the South End area of the village is barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass so meeting lorries – one going to and one coming from the warehouse – will either have to reverse or pull up onto a pathway to be able to pass each other.

And the sheer volume of these trucks – one resident sat in his deckchair and tallied 56 in one hour – makes the situation impossible and frustrating for stressed-out residents.

The road has to be shared with pedestrians, cyclists, cars, horses and tractors.

Mum-of-two Claire Ramsey-Mayes, 48, who lives directly at the most dangerous spot, said: ‘It is often not just two lorries meeting, but several, so you can end up with a convoy of lorries reversing to let each other through. It is complete nonsense.’

Claire and husband, shipping agent Jason, 54, have put CCTV up outside their home to capture hair-raising incidents on camera. They post their and others’ videos onto Instagram account @southend_hgv

Footage shows lorries driving into walls, stubborn truckers and madcap manoeuvres.

Locals complain they are woken up by thundering wagons that start coming by at 4am, that they’ve had their walls and outbuildings knocked down, they’ve had to come out of their homes to help drivers navigate out of tricky situations, had cars smashed and one man managed to dodge a hostile trucker who went to punch him.

Residents living in the luxurious expansive homes and farms along Church Side are located near a huge grain store that had four sheds – that can hold up to 20,000 tonnes of grain in each.

Most of the truck traffic on their 300-year-old road is drivers picking up giant shipments of grain, such as wheat and wood pellets for animal feed or biofuel, from the local docks at Immingham 10 miles away, to go to the warehouse, run by firm Salfina, located at an old RAF base.

They then drive back.

In addition to that they have drivers for buyers who have bought the grain, that pick it up from the store.

On days where there has been a shipment they can see hundreds of lorries ploughing through their village.

Jason said: ‘If you do the maths then you have shipments of 20,000 tonnes of grain coming in and lorries that can carry around 29 tonnes in each, that means around 700 lorries coming through our village and going back again.’

Locals say these big shipments happen every couple of months with lorries coming to buy the grain bringing around 30-40 lorries through on a daily basis.

Then when the grain is running low another shipment comes in again.

Claire said: ‘You live on tenterhooks thinking, will today be the day. It’s awful.’

But another headache for the locals is the wrangle with North Lincolnshire Council, who they say have caused this situation by approving planning permission to extend the grain warehouse in 2014 and further add to the strain by not doing anything to help.

Claire said: ‘They already knew there was a problem in 2010 when I complained because my son, Thomas, who was seven at the time and is now 23, could have been killed by a lorry that mounted the kerb while he was walking to get the school bus.

‘I’d already asked for there to be things put in place to make it safer for us and then they go and approve an extension to the warehouse without thinking about transport flow.

‘We didn’t get a chance to object because we didn’t know about it.’

Over the years there have been several consultations but the only action taken is to reduce the speed limit from 60mph to 30mph and to put in floppy boulders in problematic pinch points, which are constantly knocked over.

In around 2015 a relief road was created for construction vehicles to use to undertake essential gas pipework. There were talks to make this permanent but this was removed after completion.

And now, the latest idea is to create a one-way system around the village, but this moves the problem further up into the village and locals there are angry about that.

The problem has now split the village.

A meeting was called in January this year where Leslie Potts from North Lincolnshire Council said she would look at the issue and was concerned it was not just a safety issue but a quality of life issue.

There locals voted against the one-way move with 109 objections and only nine in support.

Despite backing from the Police and Crime Commissioner, Jonathan Evison, who told the families concerned it should not be a numbers game, it is about safety – the council seem reluctant to help the affected few.

Claire said: ‘We’ve been told that the council would rather have 10 people complaining, us along this road, rather than 100.

‘The meeting in January was horrendous, we basically sat there while others from the village took potshots at us.

‘I had one man come up to me and point in my face saying ‘We don’t want your lorries’. I said these are not my lorries.

‘They say it’s our fault we live here.

‘When we moved here there was a grain store around the corner and it was busy at harvest time and that was it.

‘We realise trucks need to come past here. For now we’re wanting some emergency procedures in place for when shipments come in until a long-term solution is sought, because we can’t keep going on like this. The roads aren’t suitable for this type of volume. It’s dangerous and they know it.

‘Somebody from the council said that there would be more action if somebody died there. We don’t want that to happen before something is done because we know it is an accident waiting to happen.

‘There is then constant fighting in the village and ill feeling between us here and those further up.

‘I hate it here now. We cannot afford to move because my mum and dad live with us, my mum has Alzheimers. I don’t like going out around here and we don’t use local tradespeople.

‘I don’t even go to the local shops.’

Jason said: ‘We came here wanting the village life, it’s peaceful and there are no street lights at night, it’s just what you are wanting. But we didn’t want this fight.’

Their daughter, Genevieve, 11, has ponies but they have pick safe days to take her out.

Claire said: ‘Even if there was a resolution I will never forgive the council for taking ten years of our lives over this. They are bullies. They say they are looking into it and they do nothing.’

Claire’s dad, Vic Mayes, 79, said: ‘It really needs a bypass put in place but that will cost millions and nobody has the money to pay for that.’

Others along the road refused to be named for fear of repercussions from the other villagers.

A 70-year-old man, who lives there, said: ‘The council screwed up 10 years ago, they should never have allowed that place to be built without a proper infrastructure survey. They never advised us what was going to happen, they said it didn’t affect us but it does when you have 40 tonne lorries coming down your street. Once we realised what was happening we were told it’s too late to object.

‘It’s a joke, a nonsense. If somebody had done the job they’re paid to do, somebody would have realised a 44 tonne truck coming down the road and another one coming the other way is a problem. 

‘Everyone knows it’s unsafe around here. It was a stupid idea and nobody will admit it because nobody wants to be the one to say we messed up.

‘You have a country village with 300-year-old roads and put a 44 tonne truck on it.

‘I sat in a deckchair for an hour with a beer and a fag and I counted 56 lorries in one hour. It is unacceptable. It was a dumb idea and they won’t admit it because it will cost them.’

Local MP Martin Vickers said: ‘This is a no-win situation for North Lincs Council. I know that they have worked tirelessly to deliver a solution. I have always ensured that the concerns of residents are passed to the council and will continue to do so.’

MailOnline has contacted Salfina for comment.