WEST Dorset's lanes have been condemned as a muddy mess and a danger to motorists.

David Wragg, parish clerk for Symondsbury and Marshwood, has accused the county council of totally failing to maintain the area's vital rural highways' in a proper condition.

He told the Bridport Local Area Partnership there had been reports of vehicles being damaged after encountering rubbish and cattle droppings as high as a car's sump.

The lanes were being used by giant lorries and huge combine harvesters for which they were never intended, the meeting was told. And they had been worn down through lack of maintenance - many going unrepaired for more than a decade.

Mr Wragg said he had written to complain but got no response and it was a similar story when Bettiscombe Parish council sent a petition with 47 signatures demanding action. That apparently got filed in the bin too, he said.

"They are not doing enough for the rural lanes," he said. "These are not just used by farm traffic but huge monstrous things like combines. The lanes were never designed for this sort of traffic or these speeds and it is totally wrong to allow it to continue."

Coun Dave Rickard said problems were made worse but Euro-sized' lorries using the lanes to deliver just a few sacks of fertiliser to a farm.

Mr Wragg said he had now written to the county council's chief executive and been promised a meeting to try to resolve some of the problems. If other parish councils had similar concerns he said they should let him know so he could take these up.

Chairman Coun Charles Wild said the problem of maintaining the rural lanes was just the kind of issue on which BLAP could speak with a collective voice.

A Dorset County Council spokesman said: "Our highways manager has offered to meet with Upper Marshwood Vale Parish Council to discuss its concerns over the condition of roads in the area. Our parish maintenance units (PMUs) deal with a great many requests for minor road repairs across the county, and their workloads have to be prioritised to make the best use of our public funds.

"We are putting in place new procedures to ensure lists of work for the PMUs are received and processed in good time and for feedback to be given on what work has and has not been carried out.

"More substantial works, such as resurfacing, require major funding and have to be dealt with as part of other programmes - often with longer lead-in times."