RESIDENTS hope an end may be in sight to the problem of giant articulated lorries manoeuvring around a small residential street.

They have been campaigning for years for improvements to an access road serving a row of shops in Ashley Road, Parkstone.

Vehicles up to 40 tonnes have to negotiate their way around a tight corner on Jubilee Road – often in reverse – and several have struck a neighbouring house.

Bournemouth Echo:

Now a stretch of wall has been demolished to make a bigger entrance. And a nearby pub is in talks about knocking down a wall to open up the service road at both ends.

Jeff Williams of Jubilee Road Residents Association said: “The manoeuvring lorries have been a shocking worry. They have hit the end house several times.”

He said the layout of the access had not changed since the 1930s.

Residents have called for a wall to be demolished behind the Churchill pub, so the service road could run all the way to Churchill Road.

Mr Williams said: “The plan proposed by residents eight years ago and repeatedly since is for a through one-way service road with entrance from Churchill and exit from Jubilee.”

Jeff Russell, chief executive of the charity Pramacare – which has a shop backing on to the service road – said: “It’s very important we get this through-road. The environment works against how a charity shop needs to be run.”

Campaigners also want a better road surface and lighting.

Karen Fancini, manager of Coopers on Ashley Road, said: “There’s no lighting down there. I hope it doesn’t take someone to be attacked.”

Anthony Mellery-Pratt of Rebbeck Brothers, agent for the land owner, said: “We have started work to improve the entrance to the service yard and when complete this will certainly improve things for the tenants of the shops and the local residents

“In the longer term, changes to the yard to create a through road will largely depend on the council’s attitude to a planning application that the pub owners are submitting.”

A spokesperson for brewery Greene King said: “Greene King is in discussion with the local council in a bid to join the two roads.”

Cllr Judy Butt, Poole council’s cabinet member for public engagement, congratulated the residents on their efforts: “The community up here are absolutely amazing,” she said.