A ROAD in Swindon notorious for lorries getting stuck is set to be closed to through traffic this year.

Mill Lane is one of the routes that joins Old Town to the new development rapidly rising at Wichelstowe – it connects Westlecot Road to Peglars Way by the Waitrose supermarket.

While it is a normal suburban road at its eastern end it soon turns into a small twisting narrow country lane, barely wider than a single carriageway and with a difficult hill to negotiate.

Traffic on that hill also has to get through a narrow railway bridge no higher than 9.9m on a sharp bend.

Swindon Borough Council said it will be announcing a date for the closure of the road at the northern end soon.

A spokesman said: “The closure of the northern section of Mill Lane is a requirement of the planning consent for Wichelstowe as the road would not be suitable for the amount of traffic generated by the new development.

“Under the planning condition, the road would remain open for pedestrians and cyclists, while maintaining access for emergency and maintenance vehicles.

"A formal consultation has been carried out and we anticipate we will be in a position to announce when the road will be closed early this year.”

For some neighbours, the announcement can’t come soon enough.

Alex Pope lives in the lane and said: “Lorries coming from Wichelstowe tend to get as far as the bridge before they realise they can’t get through and they can’t turn round, and they’re stuck.

“There are signs but they just don’t see them – there are so many signs and adverts down at Wichelstowe they just get lost.”

Mr Pope said stuck lorries has been a fact of life for people in Mill Lane for years.

He added: “It’s constant.

"Sometimes it can be twice a day and we’ve often been woken up by them. The lorries can cause damage to the road or the verge or cables trying to get round.”

He said he thinks the closure should have happened more than a decade ago.

“It was in the conditions for the original planning permission, but was then dropped," added Mr Pope. "When we pointed this out it was put back in for the canalside development permission.

“This is long overdue.”

In November last year a fuel tanker which had taken a wrong turn en route to Fairford got stuck in Mill Lane and blocked the road for 12 hours.