RESIDENTS from villages in Cornwall’s clay country have made a stand against the number of lorries thundering past their homes.

The protest on Saturday was supported by Steve Trevelyan, the Reform UK councillor for Roche and Bugle, who said: “So many people from the villages of Bugle, Stenalees and Lockengate have been complaining about the unnecessary traffic still using the village routes to the A30 instead of the A391 link road, namely HGVs and caravans.”

Residents holding placards stating ‘HGV use A391’ and ‘A30 use link road’ met at Singlerose roundabout, which connects the A391 at Carluddon/Stenalees to the A30 at the Victoria Interchange.

“A few of them came to me and asked if I’d support a peaceful gathering to highlight the issues,” said Cllr Trevelyan. “I said I was happy to support them and donated money to buy materials for some placards.”

He added: “People are fed up with huge lorries thundering through, shaking windows of homes and all the other negative effects, including pollution, safety, road degradation, etc.”

Cllr Trevelyan was also critical of highways works planned for the Mid Cornwall Metro, the £56.8-million rail transformation project connecting the north and south coasts of Cornwall with a direct, coast-to-coast train service. Trains will stop at Roche, Bugle and Luxulyan on the route from Newquay to Falmouth.

“The metro scheme is a bit of a vanity project,” he said. “As an ex-train driver that did that route, I know it hardly gets used by residents. However, the narrowing of the road that they plan will cause so much congestion I feel people will be forced to use the link road. People were in 40-minute queues the other day in Bugle, which they would have bypassed if they had used the faster empty link road.

“We are waiting on the council to put up better signage. Many promises were made at consultation, but very little has been done regarding traffic and speeding, and hoping the metro scheme will solve it all is short-sighted.”

Cllr Trevelyan added: “I must stress, the villages need HGVs, etc, for shops and the industrial estates, but that is only 10% of what we get. Any reduction will be a win.”