Grove Hill traffic chaos: Police called as wide-load lorry is stuck in Stansted for over five hours

Police were called to Stansted’s Grove Hill after an exceptionally wide load caused traffic chaos.

The lorry was trying to make its way down the hill last Thursday (August 31) at around 6.30am but was too wide to pass oncoming vehicles or negotiate its way around listed buildings at the narrowest point.

Oncoming traffic was forced to inch past on the pavements, with lengthy queues developing in both directions. The road was blocked for over five hours.

Residents who have been campaigning for a lorry ban described the snarl-up as a “dangerous unacceptable incident”.

Sallie Bliss said: “There has been a queue of cars trying to access the road – it’s causing some extremely dangerous manoeuvres.

“I’m sure a five-hour wait stuck on Grove Hill was not what the driver was expecting.”

She said police arrived on the scene to clear cars out of the way. “The traffic officer was extremely concerned about the pedestrians on the pavement – directing rather forcefully that we had to clear the area as there was a large moving vehicle on the road!

“This is a daily occurrence for pedestrians on Grove Hill. If the police find that a precarious situation for the public, what is preventing the re-routing of these large/wide vehicles?”

Highways authority Essex County Council is developing plans to divert lorries from the centre of Stansted via an alternative route along Elsenham’s Hall Road.

Stansted’s Essex county councillor, Ray Gooding, said that it was not currently illegal for lorries to travel down Grove Hill – the 7.5-tonne weight restriction applies to vehicles going up the hill.

“It’s a difficult problem because it’s not actually illegal for lorries to use the road, but obviously it was not appropriate for that one to come that way,” he said.

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