Removing a problem from one part of the Island has merely shifted it somewhere else, according to residents of Smith's North, where Tim Smith visited for this week's Up Your Street.

Banning large trucks from Flatts Village seemed like a good idea on the face of it — but try telling that to the families of Store Hill.

For every pedestrian who no longer has to dodge heavy vehicles barrelling along the winding roads of Flatts, there's a resident in nearby Store Hill waking up to booming traffic squeezing through their own street at the crack of dawn instead.

Garden walls have been knocked over, with families claiming it's only a matter of time before somebody gets seriously injured by the trucks forced down the residential road after being turned away from Flatts.

The irony, according to residents, is that Store Hill is actually narrower than the roads the trucks are being kept away from.

"It's dangerous, someone's going to get killed or injured down there one of these times," said one man living on Store Hill.

"The concrete trucks and the water trucks come along much too fast, speeding all the time, and the road is very narrow, especially at the top. We've measured the road and it's four feet wider in Flatts.

"It used to be quiet here but now we hear these trucks really early in the morning, about seven o'clock. They need to find a different route. I think they need to slow the traffic as well. If they had the radar here that would soon slow them down."

Works and Engineering banned trucks wider than 6ft 4in from North Shore Road, between Store Hill and Palmetto Gardens, in January last year, effectively meaning they could no longer pass through Flatts Village.

It came following regular complaints from villagers, with a Ministry of Works and Engineering spokesman saying at the time: "Due to the narrow road width and the frequency of accidents along this section of North Shore Road, including Flatts Village, the Ministry is required to prohibit heavy traffic."

But Smith's North MP Patrice Minors, who visited Store Hill with The Royal Gazette as part of our Up Your Street series, said: "People that live in Store Hill have been most frustrated by the increase of heavy vehicle traffic on this road. Trucks get stuck in the middle, they've struck people's walls.

"This is a residential road. It used to be a pretty quiet road. Now it's a construction road. These trucks start really early, barrelling up and down the hill.

"My appeal to the Ministry was to look at the issues that have been presented by the constituents and consider what other options are available. It's for the experts to make the determination how to take things forward."

Road complaints have been a common theme in Constituency 12 in recent times. Loyal Hill Pass was shut for four years after a wall collapsed during Hurricane Fabian, finally reopening in the run-up to the last General Election when Works and Engineering came onto a private road to fix the wall.

More recently, flashing lights have been installed on a pedestrian crossing on North Shore Road, at the bottom of Loyal Hill, where visibility for drivers is restricted.

Mrs. Minors says there are many elderly people and youngsters living in the dense constituency who need to cross that section of road safely.

l Next week Up Your Street features Paget East. Residents of that constituency who would like to comment should e-mail news@royalgazette.bm