Melbury Abbas HGV jam one-way plan 'is madness'

Residents in a village where lorries regularly get stuck say encouraging the vehicles to use the route is "madness".

The C13 in Melbury Abbas, Dorset, has been beset with problems including landslips and HGVs getting wedged.

Dorset County Council has been given £2.5m to upgrade the C13 and the A350 which run parallel with each other between Shaftesbury and Blandford.

Part of the plan is to make the roads one way for HGVs but villagers want a weight restriction instead.

Read more on this and other stories from across the south of England

The C13, known as Dinah's Hollow, was closed between April 2014 and July 2015 and from March 2016 to April 2016 because of unstable slopes.

The road is now open but residents say HGVs and other vehicles meeting in the narrow stretch get stuck on "a weekly, sometimes daily basis".

Parish council chairman William Kenealy said: "We had one yesterday morning for about an hour when a jeep towing a caravan met an artic and caused a half-mile tailback. The jeep had to uncouple the caravan and five or six people had to push the caravan off the road to let the artic go by.

"It started to get worse last April when the signs encouraging lorries to come this way went up. To encourage those vehicles to come this way is madness. We're against the one-way system."

Dorset head of highways Andrew Martin said: "Neither the A350 or the C13 is perfectly suited to take HGVs both ways - there are issues on both routes so we have to look at ways of sharing the load as best we can."

The authority said it was in discussions with other councils about a longer-term proposal for traffic between the M5 and Poole Port.