It's not only the damage it would cause to third party property.
You only have to take one look at Aggregate Industries' swept path drawings below to see that two-way HGV traffic cannot work on Birdcage Lane. See how AI's trucks would cut across the central white lines; see how AI's trucks could not pass each other or anything else at this point.
Whilst this may be acceptable to AI, it would obviously be less so for oncoming farm or other vehicles being faced down by 44-tonne articulated lorries. Who would reverse to let the other through? Tractor and trailer or 50-foot artic?
Without free-flowing two-way movement, and with up to one truck every 3 minutes, HGVs could even be forced to queue up towards and onto the Exeter Road.
DCC had insisted on a 6.5m wide two-way carriageway for Birdcage Lane, for the whole stretch from the B3174 junction to the site access. We've said before that it didn't look possible. The drawings below clearly show that it isn't, within the given constraints.
Meanwhile, at Uffculme, for AI's ‘inextricably linked’ application to import Straitgate material into Hillhead:
It is proposed to widen Clay Lane on its western side by between 1 to 2 metres to achieve an overall carriageway width of 7.3 metres. This will allow the safe two-way lorry movements for all mineral and waste related traffic 4.5.2
If 7.3m is proposed for safe two-way lorry movements on Clay Lane, for the import of Straitgate material, we can obviously assume that the 6m or less proposed for Birdcage Lane for the export of the same material would create unsafe lorry movements.
And while we're talking safety, see where AI's trucks would swing out beyond the carriageway, by the field entrance - exactly where children stand waiting for school buses.
