RESIDENTS have voiced concerns over heavy good vehicles passing through Milverton after roads became gridlocked last Thursday.

Problems started when a Nissan Micra was left parked in Fore Street.

Within minutes the village became jammed by three lorries, two coupled to large trailers and one carrying hazardous chemicals, which could not pass, effectively isolating the village centre for approaching three hours.

Community police and volunteers attended to control and divert traffic. Police confirmed the car was towed away under their order at about 5.30pm.

Peter Hanlon, of Fore Street, believes Milverton should be able to accommodate parked cars along the street, but says discontent about the scale and size of vehicles passing through has long been an issue.

"It's too easy to revile the very existence of lorries simply because they are visible in what appears to be wrong places, and this in part is due to satellite navigation systems identifying roads by category rather than suitability," said Mr Hanlon.

"This possibly adds some weight to the argument for downgrading the Wellington-Milverton road, and perhaps a width limit through the village might also help discourage massive agricultural vehicles which would be more at home on the Australian outback than Fore Street."

Nanette Little, of Sand Street, also believes SatNav is to blame.

She said: "We were having to turn traffic around and sent them another way from both directions.

"It seems drivers are ignoring the road signs and just following SatNav.

"You wouldn't have been able to get an emergency vehicle through if it was needed in the afternoon and we've had these problems for years.

"It has improved recently because we wrote to a number of companies and they've respected what we say, but now with SatNav it's started again."

Milverton Parish Council clerk Gwilym Wren says they have been trying to get the problem resolved for three years.

"These vehicles are guided by SatNav and ignore the road signs saying it's not suitable for large vehicles to pass through and they find themselves stuck," said Mr Wren.

"There's damage to the village on a daily basis because the roads are only 13-feet wide and the vibrations cause real problems."

*For more photos of the gridlock, see this Thursday's Somerset County Gazette