RESIDENTS are at loggerheads with a business outside Willersey over the volume of lorries using a rural road.

Fresh for All on Badsey Lane farms and distributes spring onions with those living nearby claiming the road structure and safety is being compromised by 20 heavy goods vehicle (HGV) trips per day.

Resident Nickie Maddaford says the firm is acting outside of its licence from Cotswold District Council and that staff have “displayed threatening behaviour”, claims the company denies.

A spokesperson for Fresh for All acknowledged some of its operation involved the import of spring onions grown by the company in India but that “three, maximum four” lorries come and go in a day.

Director Rajdeep Singh later stated onions are grown on site in season and that the imports are in line with “lawful use”, activity which has been carried out from the site since the 1980s.

“I don’t want to see anyone’s business destroyed but a quiet country lane is not an appropriate place for up to 20 HGV journeys per day from a distribution centre,” said Mrs Maddaford.

“The impact is massive. The condition of the lane and road structure itself cannot cope with it.

“We get walkers, cyclists and horse riders down here and you take your life into your own hands, it is literally crumbling away with cracks and deep potholes.

“It is built for agricultural vehicles and cars, not 20 HGVs a day. It looks messy and people are being driven off the road because the lorries are not slowing down, we have had horses rearing up.

“They come past our house so quickly the pictures rattle on the wall.

“They should not be allowed to run a distribution centre in this location. The business should be moved somewhere more appropriate.

“We just want the flow of lorries to stop and for it to return to the country lane that it should be.”

The Fresh for All spokesperson acknowledged there had been complaints but that some had been “rude and abusive”.

“During the winter season we have imported onions but that does not make us a distribution centre. We only grow and sell our own products,” she said.

“A gentleman came over and was quite verbal with a member of staff who has only been here two days. We are not abusive towards them, if they come in or send letters, we respond and try to accommodate whatever they want but fundamentally they want us to leave.”

Cotswold District Council had not responded to a request for information prior to Evesham Journal going to press.