Police fined lorry drivers almost £3,000 during an operation targeting HGVs speeding through Cheshire villages in the dead of night.

Speed vans were deployed to catch drivers exceeding the speed limit, with 20 fixed penalty notices handed out over two days to lorries and cars.

Officers also pulled over HGVs for inspections at the Wrexham Road Park and Ride, Chester, as part of Operation Hazard.

A total of 22 lorries were checked over two nights with six drivers fined almost £3,000 – three of those drivers were stopped from driving for 11 hours because they had exceeded their hours.

The action follows complaints from rural communities living alongside the A41 and A51, near Chester, who suffer from speeding convoys of lorries which travel from the port at Holyhead to the rest of the country, causing considerable noise in the early hours of the morning.

Sergeant Anton Sullivan, who ran the operation, said: “We have reacted to the issues which our community has raised with us and taken this action as a result. We are pleased to have given lorry companies who travel through the county a reminder that we will not tolerate speeding through the villages of Chester.

“We know that one operation won’t change the behaviour of these lorry drivers overnight and will continue to monitor the situation.”