THE Chronicle campaign to drive lorries out of Sevenoaks town centre won a major victory this week as the AA promised to "amend" its recommended route.

Truck drivers heading from Tonbridge to the Otford superstores – believed to be the main cause of traffic coming through the High Street – will now be sent along the A21 bypass.

Campaigners from the Sevenoaks Society were delighted that Google Maps was likely to follow suit.

And a new sat nav system from Tom Tom has been released which also keeps HGVs out of town.

Our campaign has attracted more than 1,600 signatures on paper petition and online.

Society spokesman David Gamble said: "This is excellent news and a big step in the right direction.

"The society felt the sat navs and online routers would be the hardest to crack, but to get a result like this so early in the campaign is terrific."

Sevenoaks MP Michael Fallon added: "This is a major victory and a great result. It shows the power of public opinion.

"Whether it's sat nav or poor routing, we need to reduce the pollution and danger from the largest lorries.

"Fewer HGVs will also mean less traffic on the approach roads, such as Seal Hollow Road, St Johns Road, London Road and Riverhill."

Motorists can work out the fastest route to their destination by using the internet. The AA's website, along with Google, is among the most popular.

A spokesman for the Automobile Association, established in 1905, and is regarded as the voice of motorists, said its online route planner would now direct drivers along the bypass.

"The AA recognises the need to encourage motorists away from busy town centres where bypasses are available," a spokesman said.

"In addition, it is known that Sevenoaks can become particularly congested at certain times, and therefore we will look to amend our recommended route for this particular journey."

Representatives of Google Maps promised to review the situation, and TomTom, the satellite navigation maker, has recently released software to redress the problem of HGVs in residential areas.

A spokesman for TomTom said it takes such problems "very seriously".

"We have just launched a new "truck" navigation system specifically to address this problem," said Julien Speed, of Starfish Communications.

A Chronicle investigation into the directions given by popular route-planners between the Halfords store in Cannon Lane, Tonbridge and the store in Sevenoaks Retail Park, showed a major discrepancy in the directions provided by the free route-planners.

The AA, Google Maps and TomTom plotted a course through the centre of town.

In contrast, Multimap, ViaMichelin and RAC bypassed the town centre by way of the A21.

Flagging up our town centre to the major route providers is a first step towards a lorry-free town centre.

Speaking on the problem of lorries passing through a busy town, Paul Watters, head of policy at the AA, said: "Every town in Britain is like that.

"It is difficult getting classifications from authorities. It is very tricky to mirror what the local authority want."

Sign the petition at www.thisiskent.co.uk/lorriescampaign or www.sevenoakssociety.org.uk.