Yesterday a large articulated lorry became stuck in Gates Green Road, and for most of the day, outside Wickham Common School. The driver seems to have realised too late that he was never going to fit down a country lane.
This isn’t the first time this has happened in the Wickham Common area. Previously a street tree was severely damaged by a lorry leading to the Council’s legal team pursuing the company responsible. Also, Layhams Road and North Pole Lane have suffered from errant HGVs; a problem that appears to have been on the increase, partly because some haulage firms try to cut costs by using satellite navigation maps designed only for smaller vehicles.
The Council has previously worked with mapmakers to ensure that roads unsuitable for HGVs are marked as such in satnav data, but clearly more needs to be done. We are now taking the issue up with the Council’s highways officers, including improving the signage at vulnerable junctions such as Gates Green Road/Croydon Road, Kingsway and others.
Hayes & Coney Hall Conservative Councillors 
Large lorries also travel down Barnet Wood Road, breaking branches off trees and hedges and often get stuck causing major traffic jams. They take no notice of the signposts. Please could Councillors investigate a solution to this problem too?
Sounds like the same sort of problem. Yes, we’ll add it to the list.
This caused chaos for six hours. Did the local SNT even bother to send an officer down or was it another rest day or too busy drinking tea?
I understand they weren’t on that day – I don’t know if the borough police were called otherwise. That being said, I’m not sure what they could have done to move the lorry any quicker.