'We're sick of lorry drivers using our street as a toilet'

People have raised concerns about lorry drivers illegally parking overnight near their homes and using a street as a toilet.

Kerstin Chinery said she once counted 21 HGVs on double-yellow lines in Carr Road, Felixstowe, Suffolk, and often found bags and bottles of human waste while picking litter with her six-year-old daughter.

"If a child runs over a bag, they've got faeces and urine trodden into their school shoes," she said.

Ashton Cull from the Road Haulage Association said he sympathised with residents but called for more places for HGV drivers to stop.

Resident Andy Damant is worried about parked lorries blocking the view of drivers coming out of junctions.

"We are living on borrowed time, genuinely, before somebody gets badly hurt," he said.

"Langer Road is a busy road with the port. They (the lorries) shouldn't be there because they're presenting a risk to people's lives by causing an obstruction, when there's a perfectly serviceable truck stop 400 yards down the road."

Although there is a truck stop nearby, it only has space for 50 lorries.

Cull defended lorry drivers, explaining they were legally required to stop every few hours but had limited options.

"The least we should be able to do as a country is to provide them with facilities, a toilet, a place to have some food.

"We don't want drivers to be there. We know members of the public don't want drivers to be there and the drivers don't want to be there either. Quite frankly though, they have no other choice."

East Suffolk Council deputy leader Paul Ashton said: "It sounds like we need to have a bit of a discussion and see what's motivating people to park along what is really a residential road and isn't appropriate for trucks."

He urged lorry drivers to use the parking areas provided and said the use of parking enforcement officers in the evening - and better signage - would be considered.

As for littering, he said: "Clearly we do need to do something about it, but the responsibility lies with those that do the littering."

A Port of Felixstowe spokesperson said they provided "toilets, bins and two canteens for HGV drivers to use" while they were at the port.