HOUSEHOLDER Peregrine Rawlins is calling for action to stop lorries using a single-track road at Little Cheverell as a rat run.

Mr Rawlins said long lorries have particular difficulty negotiating bends in Low Road. Kerb stones have been damaged and his wall has been hit several times.

Lorries are supposed to divert off the A360 to avoid the low railway bridge at Littleton Panell and go via Great Cheverell back onto the A360 at West Lavington, but lorries are taking a short cut through Little Cheverell. Low Road has a 7.5 tonne weight limit and there are signs stating this.

Mr Rawlins, a retired Army officer, said: “I think sat nav has a considerable part to play. The road is wide enough to take motor vehicles but the problem is the bend. Long vehicles can’t get round. I have lived here 15 years and it became a problem about two-and-a-half years ago and now there are almost weekly incidents.”

Earlier this month, a fuel tanker is believed to have been responsible for scraping Mr Rawlins’s wall and loosening the stone. The same section of wall was damaged a few months previously and Mr Rawlins spent £200 repairing it. Another section of his wall was also damaged in the past five weeks.

Mr Rawlins has talked to Wiltshire councillor Richard Gamble and to highway officers at Wiltshire Council, who are changing the signs to the approaches to Little Cheverell and the area to try to deter lorry drivers.

A new sign will be put up showing the weight limit and a white lorry on a black background pointing away from Low Road to indicate for drivers to use the B3098. The new signage will cost £4,000.

Mr Rawlins does not believe the new signs will work and said: “If Wiltshire Council would just have a single track road sign at both ends of Low Road I think our problem would go away.”

Coun Gamble said: “The highway officers believe the addition of a black lorry sign will do the trick, as that is explicit to lorries.”

A Wiltshire Council spokesman said: “We have worked with the parish council and local councillors on this scheme and we are confident it will help improve the situation. Once all the signage is in place we will monitor how it is working.”