VILLAGERS in Brompton Regis are demanding action to help protect their properties after a 44-ton lorry became wedged against a house following a sat nav fiasco.

Kevin Steer and his wife Lynne were eating their evening meal when they heard what they thought were gunshots outside their home in Sanctuary Lane.

The noise turned out to be the exploding tyres of a Polish-owned lorry understood to be on its way from Taunton to Watchet's paper mill.

The vehicle had hit large stones placed outside Kevin's centuries-old home and come to rest on its wheel rims.

And its trailer had ripped into the roof, pulling off guttering, fascia and some rafters.

The lorry was so firmly stuck following the incident last Thursday evening that it blocked the narrow road between Combeshead Hill and Bryants Hill for 30 hours.

"The driver spoke very little English but we could see that he had been following sat nav directions," said Kevin, whose home has been damaged numerous times by other similarly large vehicles.

"It's just ridiculous. I grew up in this house but it was built when people were just using horse and carts - not 44-ton lorries.

"The churchyard wall, which is opposite my house, has also been damaged in the past - something has to be done."

Brompton Regis Parish Council discussed the issue at a meeting on Wednesday and is calling for a site meeting with a range of agencies and organisations.

""This is a recurrent problem that has caused Kevin, in particular, a lot of expense and damaged other sites in the centre of the village," said council chairman Peter Stringer.

"There is a very real health and safety risk which must be addressed in a manner that can accommodate the whole community.

"We accept that the local farmers and forestry companies, for example, need to access this area."

Cllr Stringer said it was hoped representatives from highways, the church, parish, district and county councils, along with anyone whose property has been damaged, would attend the site meeting.

Meanwhile, 49-year-old Kevin, a retired Royal Navy officer who now runs a gardening services business, is still counting the cost of the damage to his property.

"Luckily it's not as bad as I first thought and it doesn't look as though there's anything structural - but that's only because of the stones I put by the cottage that forced the lorry trailer out by a foot," he said.

"If they hadn't been there and the trailer had been a foot further in, it would have been right in the house."

Kevin was forced to spend several hours liaising with the lorry's insurers in Poland and the firm itself as the driver's mobile phone had no signal.

"I had to sort outthe rescue as mobiles don't work here," he said.

"I had to take the driver into Dulverton to withdraw money so goodness knows what would have happened if I hadn't been here."

The lorry was finally on the move again on Friday evening after new tyres had been fitted.

But even then Kevin had to redirect the driver, who was set to embark on a route to Watchet along yet another narrow and unsuitable road.

Kevin has met highways chiefs in the past to discuss the problem and is hoping the meeting called by the parish council will lead to a solution.

"Apparently there's nothing they can do about HGVs coming through the village due to existing legislation," he said.

"There are signs in the village warning that the road is unsuitable for lorries but apparently they are only advisory.

"But this is happening more and more frequently so something has to be done."