All of who have been stuck in stationary traffic jams in Station Road of a morning will know that the constant 2 way HGV circulation is not helping what was already a bit of a bottle-neck around the parish.

The ford floods regularly, as it is designed to, but add to that the beautiful Victorian bridge over the railway, designed for nothing larger than the 19th century station waggon running from the old station into the village of Broadclyst, and we have a regular problem in Station Road, particularly with the large HGVs running back and forth all day to the various Lodge trading estate sites.

Station Road may be a hamlet of Broadclyst, but it has as many houses and residents as some full-blown villages, concentrated around an impossible road.

Long-term there will doubtless be a solution- this situation cannot continue like this, but in the meantime, unhappy people are stuck every day either side of the bridge, or at the end of the road (often all the way back to the bridge) waiting to turn right onto the old A30.

There is unfortunately not much that either the parish council or the district council can do about the presence of any business there. The site has had a haulage designation since the 1960s, and once Devon highways department deemed it suitable for the purpose, local councillors could not argue against the second haulage business moving in.

It is a shame that Highways saw fit to deem it suitable, especially given the size of the vehicles used by the new business on the site. They are however the owners of the site, and the site is designated for the purpose for which it is being used.

It is horrible and frustrating far too often, and I know it’s also frightening. I report every incident that people report to me, passing it on to the person or organisation I think can tackle it the best. We can but hope that eventually even those businesses will feel that a different site might be more suitable for their purposes- it must be annoying for them too to be stuck in intractable traffic for so many hours a week.