Police will be clamping down on overweight vehicles crossing the restricted Marlow Bridge in the New Year, in a bid to educate drivers about the weight limit. 

Inspector Scott Long, of Thames Valley Police Roads Policing, says that his team will be carrying out "targeted enforcement" of the bridge’s weight limit along with Transport for Bucks.

They are working together in a bid to prevent a repeat of the incident in September, where a HGV driver forced his way across the three-tonne limited bridge - resulting in its closure for two months.  

As early as the first day of reopening on November 25, overweight vehicles were seen crossing, or attempting to cross the bridge in spite of the weight limit.

TfB is investigating other potential deterrents that could be put in place, and in the meantime is liaising with Thames Valley Police  to discuss closer monitoring and enforcement of the weight limit.

He said: "We are taking all violations of the weight limit very seriously, due to the impact on the town’s residents and businesses of the two month closure of the bridge after an HGV collided with it in September.

"We are working with TfB to come to a solution, and would like to reinforce the message to drivers that ignoring the weight restriction could result in penalties." 

Mark Shaw, Bucks County Council cabinet member for Transport, said there were complications with trying to enforce the restrictions, but was aware of the concerns of Marlow residents. 

He said: “This is a difficult problem to solve. It seems likely that many drivers do not realise how little 3 tonnes is.

"For instance, a Range Rover carrying four people and their shopping could easily exceed 3 tonnes. As such, we will be trying to educate local residents on identifying the weight of their vehicles if they are regular users of the bridge.

"There are measures in place to deter heavier vehicles from crossing the bridge already, for instance the width-restricting bollards.

"However, as we know from experience, this does not put off all drivers. Additionally, using width or height restrictions only works some of the time, because not all heavy vehicles are necessarily overly wide, or tall."