PEOPLE living near a new distribution centre in the Severn Vale are calling for a new motorway junction to be built to stop lorries using their villages for access.

Residents of Pilning and Severn Beach want highways bosses to consider an additional junction on the M49 so lorries do not travel through their villages to access the new Portal West Distribution Park.

The Portal West Distribution Park, to be built on land off the B4055 between Pilning and Easter Compton, will be an extension to the existing Western Approach Distribution Park in Severn Beach.

At the moment lorries accessing the Western Approach Distribution Park do so via the A403, which goes through Severn Beach and Pilning. When the new Portal West Distribution Park is built lorries are expected to use the same route.

Mike Fish, of Pilning, said: "They promise that traffic from the site will go out onto the A403 but that road is already chock-a-block with lorries from the Western Distribution Park.

"People in Pilning are crying out for them to build another interchange on the motorway."

Roy Edwards, who lives in Chessell Avenue in Pilning near the A403, said: "The site runs right along the side of the M49 motorway but all the traffic comes out through the distribution park and with this new development we can expect up to 900 more lorries on the A403 road, which just isn’t adequate as a road."

There are also mounting concerns about a separate road being built which would link the new distribution park to the B4055, which is a minor road linking Pilning with Easter Compton.

Cllr Peter Tyzack, South Gloucestershire councillor for Pilning and Severn Beach, said: "There is no excuse for lorries to come through the villages and if they do not adhere to the weight limit then the council will have to enforce it and if the council doesn’t then I am sure residents will with a blockade."

Emma Webster, spokesman for site developers Santon Group and Spen Hill, said: "During the public consultation an indicative site plan was produced and this included the roads to be built on site.

"One of the roads does meet with the B4055. This route will be locked and is required for emergency service access only. All vehicle movements into and away from the site are to be over the motorway bridge from Western Approach.

"The capacity required for an additional junction on the motorway to be built has not been reached and therefore the developers do not see that there is a requirement for a junction to be built."

A Highways Agency spokesman said the authority had no plans to promote the construction of an additional junction on the M49.