Police kickstarted their controversial crackdown of overweight vehicles crossing Marlow Bridge this morning. 

For six weeks from today, any vehicles over the three-tonne weight limit will be turned around by police. 

The first day of action saw dozens of vans and 4x4s stopped from crossing the bridge by Marlow's top police officer, Sergeant Robin Hughes and his team.

The officers, who were stationed on both the Marlow and Bisham sides of the bridge, pulled the overweight vehicles aside and handed out "advisory notices" warning them of the risks of crossing. 

Cllr Richard Scott, who represents the South Ward for Marlow Town Council, Wycombe District Council and Buckinghamshire County Council, was also on the scene with police. 

He said: “The county council is responsible for the bridge so I was there as a representative of Marlow supporting the police with their operation.

“They were checking vehicles that appeared to be overweight. They had a list of all the vehicles that are over the weight limit but no penalties were given out, it was more of an education programme. I think a lot of people do not realise how much their vehicles weigh.

“I understand that in the first hour, from 11am until 12pm, there were 30 overweight vehicles turned around.

“I wasn’t surprised really, if you go over the bridge on a regular basis, you see heavy vehicles crossing all the time. It is a huge issue.

“The bridge is a robust structure, but the reason why we need this weight limit is to prevent wear and tear from overweight vehicles because the costs of that fall on the Buckinghamshire taxpayers.”

No vehicle that is more than 6ft 6ins wide and weighs more than three tonnes maximum gross weight (MGW) should cross the weak bridge.

This includes Range Rovers, Discoveries, Ford Transit vans, Mercedes Sprinter vans, Volvo XC90s, 4WD pick-ups, Mercedes GLE/GLS/G Classes and Audi Q7s.