A HAULIER has said sometimes it is unavoidable for him to travel through Sevenoaks High Street.

Liam Manby, who lives in Chesterfield Drive in the town and owns the Tonbridge-based haulage company T & T Express Deliveries, said other routes can be unsuitable depending on the size of the truck.

Speaking of his route to Otford from Tonbridge, he said: "I come off at Morley's turn-off, past the Chronicle office and straight through. These trailers can be 15ft high.

"I can't go past the bridge at Riverhead and I can't go down Seven Mile Lane (in Wrotham Heath) because of the bridges.

"You could go up St Botolph's Road (in Sevenoaks), but you are between the devil and the deep blue sea as people will complain it's a residential area."

He said longer diversion routes were not environmentally friendly. "We are taxed and taxed and what we are getting told is we cannot go places more and more," he added.

"We then use more fuel on re-routing, which increases our carbon footprint and we would like to avoid that. The problem is the most of the people that are campaigning have nothing to do with haulage.They know nothing about what we do."

Sevenoaks Society chairman David Gamble said hauliers tended to fall in two groups.

He said "There are those that through unfamiliarity with the area find themselves going through, and there are those who know Sevenoaks well and say it's a quick way of getting from A to B."

He said he sympathised with the first group, but felt it was unfair for the second group to create problems for the rest of the town.

Tanker

We asked Tesco why a petrol tanker was travelling along the High Street towards its superstore in Riverhead.

A spokesman said: "These are both pre-approved routes as agreed with the local authority.

"In the vast majority of times our vehicles use the bypass route, but the alternative route will used on occasion."

More positive news has been announced by Waitrose, which said no vehicles working for the Sevenoaks supermarket will use the High Street.

Spokesman James Armstrong said Waitrose's own vehicles already did had not use the route.

but the same rules were extended to contractors two weeks ago.