Could Somerset have the answer to Audlemís biggest issue?

In Somerset, county council planners are to ask the makers of vehicle-based satellite navigation systems to stop sending heavy traffic through rural villages. An increase in lorry traffic clogging roads in Wedmore, Somerset, led villagers there to call for it to be "wiped off" the sat nav map. Somerset County Council said it would now be drawing up a series of preferred routes for sat nav systems and the authority said there are "more appropriate" routes for heavy lorries.

The Audlem Parish Plan's questionnaire showed that heavy goods vehicles on the A525 through the village was the major issue for most local people. A submission (published last year on Audlem Online) to the Minister of Transport to have the road "de-primed" as a way of reducing the number of long-distance trucks is with local MP Stephen O'Brien who has said he will do all he can to help. As Audlem is asking for similar protection to Wedmore in Somerset, now that a precedent has been set, both the Transport Ministry and Cheshire County Council could act.

Meanwhile, a mole – not one in the Ministry of Transport, but one burrowing beneath the church mound – is doing his (or her) best to narrow the road yet further. The mole hills are now so near the church wall that the soil has dropped on to the road in a series of neat piles, just where the A525 is at its narrowest. Could the mole be the first to opt for direct action – albeit in a futile attempt to block the road!

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