Police issue fines and clamp illegally parked lorry drivers who stop on M20 hard shoulders and slip roads
Published: 00:00, 17 December 2015
Updated: 14:20, 17 December 2015
Police have issued 58 fines in a 'zero tolerance' approach to illegally parked lorry drivers.
Seven HGVs were even moved to a safe location and clamped until they paid up.
Officers from Kent’s Roads Policing Unit and Highways England have been handing out the graduated fixed penalty notices to drivers parked on hard shoulders and slip roads overnight.
On the M20, 28 fines were handed out at junction 8, junction 11 and 11a and the Courtwood by-pass in Capel-le-Ferne. Two drivers failed to pay and were clamped until they did.
On the A2 at Cobham, 30 fines were handed out for illegal parking on the carriageway. Five of these vehicles failed to pay and were also clamped until they paid up.
Graduated fixed penalty notices allow the cost of the fine to go up in accordance with the number of offences and their severity.
Superintendent Ian Hall said: "We are operating a zero-tolerance approach to unsafe illegal parking on the hard shoulder and slip roads along our carriageways.
"The hard shoulders are there for those vehicles that break down and are in need of assistance, and for the use of the emergency services.
"Parking on the hard shoulder and slip roads for a rest is simply not acceptable – it is unlawful and unsafe and the police and Highways England are patrolling our road network and will deal with those who flout the law accordingly.
"This is one element of a multi-agency approach to dealing with the boarder issue of unsafe, illegal and antisocial parking of HGVs across the county."
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Vicky Castle