TALKS have been re-opened to impose a one-way system through Lyme’s town centre for large lorries.

The move is expected to relieve town centre congestion and protect the Grade II listed Guildhall, which is frequently hit by HGVs.

Plans for a one-way system were first suggested a decade ago but were never implemented due to a disagreement between Dorset and Devon County Councils.

Uplyme Parish Council has also been against the idea, but with changes in all three authorities Lyme’s county councillor Col Geoff Brierley hopes to re-establish the negotiations.

Col Brierley said: “The major benefit is actually for Church Street because that is a serious congestion point. If you have got HGVs going in both directions you have got problems if they meet.

“If a HGV comes down Church Street they have been hitting the Guildhall because they can’t turn the corner. It is a Grade II Listed building and anything we can do to prevent that happening is a good thing.

“We have been negotiating with Devon for quite a while to open up a route through Trinity Hill which would be quite a convenient way of getting around it.”

Lyme Regis Development Trust carried out a traffic review in 2001, which was picked up by Dorset County Council and included a recommendation for a one-way system for HGVs from west to east.

The proposal was for lorries to come in through Raymonds Hill, through Uplyme, into the town, and out through Church Street.

Col Brierley said: “A traffic regulation order was issued by the county council but unfortunately it was not agreed by Devon County Council because the road from Raymonds Hill into Lyme is actually a B road, so they wouldn’t allow HGVs to come down.

“They said the only way it could happen was to go down the Axminster bypass and cut across through Musbury and up through Rousdon, but of course no HGV driver is going to drive that far.”

Col Brierley said the council’s traffic manager Tim Westwood is retiring but will be replaced by Matthew Piles, who has project managed the Weymouth Relief Road.

“The moment he is in place I intend with him to pick it up and run with it again and I think we have got a good chance of getting it done,” said Brierley.

“We can probably persuade people that this is a sensible thing to do."