FED-UP residents are calling for sat-nav makers to devise new systems after a lorry became wedged in a narrow Dorset street.

The Lithuanian lorry, on its way to Weymouth, was trapped in the Portesham lane for around 20 minutes because its driver followed a sat-nav system.

It was stuck on the junction between Winter’s Lane and Front Street.

Val Hensby, of Portesham, whose friend took pictures of the lorry, said: “People were quite surprised to see this monster appearing from the bottom of the lane.

“It’s a tiny, narrow road and is difficult for even car drivers on a single vehicle width road to reach.

“I’ve never seen a lorry that size try to get through. The driver got out and had a long conversation about it with someone then eventually manoeuvred round.”

Mrs Hensby said that she would like to see a different kind of sat-nav system manufactured especially for lorries.

“I don’t understand why lorries don’t have separate satellite navigation systems.

“This seems to be becoming a real problem. We get so many lorries coming down from the A37 to the A35 through Portesham,” she said.

Portesham resident David Blackwell is part of the village’s Traffic Working Group.

The group has met with Dorset County Council’s traffic department in a bid to reduce the number of vehicles going through the village.

Mr Blackwell said: “We recently did a survey and found out that we have up to 4,000 vehicles a day coming through the village and we are trying to fight this. I think the sat-nav people have got to take a certain amount of responsibility and produce different systems for different types of vehicles.

“We’re trying to turn Portesham back into a village. We’re pushing for the county council to do more to solve this problem.”

Tim Westwood, the county council’s transportation manager, said there was no simple solution for the problem.

He added: “This matter has been debated nationally for some years and there is still no agreement of how to overcome the many problems.

“There is a move by the Department of Transport (DfT) to consider some form of warning sign, but this has not yet seen the light of day.

“I am pursuing this issue with the South West Traffic Managers Forum who in turn are dealing with the DfT.

“In addition, I am discussing this with the Dorset Freight Quality Partnership that deals with representatives of the Logistics Industry.”