OVERWEIGHT lorries rumbling through the villages of Purton and Lydiard Millicent are such a problem that Wiltshire Police has appealed for help to catch them.

Volunteers are being asked to come forward to spot lorries weighing more than 7.5 tonnes travelling down narrow country lanes, in some cases blocking the road and narrowly avoiding residents walking on roads with no pavements.

A Lorry Watch Scheme in place since 2014 allows residents to report repeat offenders to Trading Standards, but in May they stopped receiving reports and it will now be taken over by Wiltshire Police.

Jacqui Lay, Wiltshire councillor for Purton, told the Adver: “There are a few places where the houses vibrate when the lorries go through, because they go through at speed.

“There was a huge white pizza lorry that used to come through on a daily basis. It would thunder through and come by the village hall, and anyone on walking on the pavement put their life into their own hands.

“It’s not every lorry, just the odd one who thinks they can drive through the village at 30mph and it won’t affect us. If only people could be a bit more respectful, we wouldn’t have to start looking at other alternatives.”

Sarah Hill-Wheeler, parish councillor for Lydiard Millicent, explained: “Lorries are one of the things that our residents frequently complain about, particularly where there’s a lot of single track where the road narrows. For example, going past where the school is, we’ve had cases of kids walking to school virtually being clipped by wing mirrors on lorries.

“There’s a concern about the amount of police presence at the moment, because they’re under more pressure. It seems fair to think that the Lorry Watch Scheme might be lost.”

The Community Lorry Watch Scheme meeting will meet at Wiltshire Police HQ in Devizes at 4pm on July 14. Inspector James Brain said: “The purpose of the meeting is to establish a consistent governance for the scheme [and] to allow logistical decisions to be made.”