THE environmental regeneration company managing the restoration of Little Belhus Country Park in South Ockendon has responded to concerns from local residents and councillors that vehicles attending the site are adding to traffic problems in the area.

Earlier today (Tuesday, 16 June) Thurrock Nub News reported on residents' concerns about the amount of damage being caused to roads and pathways by HGVs and the negative impact the amount of lorry traffic was having on local life.

Now [L+] https://www.ruralarisings.co.uk/ [L+]Rural Arisings[.L], which was named by one councillor as a part of the problem.

Dhruti Bell, Countryside Manager for Rural Arisings Ltd, told Thurrock Nub News: "Rural Arisings only have one site, which is Little Belhus Country Park. The aim of this project is to create a publicly accessible park on the site of a former landfill which was poorly restored with the objectives of benefitting local people and wildlife.

"Improving the environment and well-being of the local community is important to us, and we have been following Thurrock Council's policy of keeping parks open during lockdown to enable local people to visit the site.

"If we receive any complaints from members of the public about lorries parking illegally on verges, we ask them to provide the name of the haulage company and registration number of the lorry. This way we can ascertain whether they are using our site and if so can issue warnings to the haulier, and for repeat offenders, ban them from the site. However after mentioning this, members of the public have rarely provided the details necessary for us to act upon the situation.

"We run a Stakeholder Group for members of the local community including councillors and representatives of local groups and have been working with them over a number of years to help address concerns raised by the local community.

"Again we have stated at this group if the details of the offending drivers be passed to us, we are more than happy to provide support in alleviating the situation by speaking directly with the haulage companies.

"We also encourage drivers to wait on our site, rather than the adjoining roads if they have to take a taco break. We are happy to work with the Council and and I will contact Cllr Sue Shinnick to resolve this situation.

"The site we are restoring is a very good site for rare insects and recently we have even had recordings of species which are new to the UK! This has prompted some esteemed entomologists to visit the site."