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On yer bike!

Kate Speedie
17/ 7/2003

ONE man and his bike caused rush-hour traffic chaos in Burnage when the determined pensioner held a stand off with an HGV lorry.

Terry Perkins, from Grangethorpe Drive, is sick of the huge vehicles using his road as a short cut when width restrictions do not allow them access.

So when he saw an articulated truck turning in to the road he grasped the chance to make his point known as crowds of onlookers gathered to see what was going on.

Swerving his bicycle in front of the lorry he forced it to stop in the road, refused to move causing queues of traffic throughout the area and sat tight in his position of protest until the police moved him along 40 minutes later.

Terry said: "I wanted the police to take all the particulars so they could prosecute the driver but instead they said they could prosecute me. But it won't stop me. I'm going to force this issue all the way and I'll take the risk of going to jail."

Grangethorpe Drive has a width restriction of six foot six inches and even the driver of the lorry admitted that his vehicle was over eight foot six wide and should not have been there.

Terry has written to the North West Traffic Commissioner reporting the number of times oversized lorries have used the road. But getting little response drove him to take his dramatic stand last week, an act he is quite prepared to repeat.

He said: "The things one has to do because the authorities will not do their duty. "

During Terry's protest traffic was forced into gridlock all the way back on to Kingsway at the busy school closing time.
Police officers from the Longsight Station had to spend time moving Terry and his bike and getting the traffic on the go again and threatened the 74-year-old campaigner with arrest.

PC Angus Styth said: "It is a shame that he felt he would have to go that far but in taking matters in to his own hands he caused far more of an obstruction than the original problem. We could have arrested him."