A WHEDDON Cross woman is calling for heavy goods lorries and large vehicles to be banned from the centre of Wheddon Cross in an ongoing battle to protect her home from damage.

Hairdresser Sandra Worrell attracted national publicity after revealing in the Free Press last year that The Old Post Office - where she has lived with her husband Brian and three children for the past 13 years - had been hit by vehicles at least 50 times.

The building lies at the junction of the B3224 and the A396 and has suffered thousands of pounds of damage over the years, leaving the Worrells unable to get insurance cover.

Now Mrs Worrell wants Somerset County Council, the highways authority, to ban large vehicles from what she says is a dangerous crossroads.

And if they will not, she would like them to "bite the bullet" and buy her house so the junction could be significantly improved.

Following last year's publicity, the county council installed a bollard on the road outside the Worrell's home, put up a sign at Heathpoult Cross advising HGVs that they could not turn left at the Wheddon Cross junction and made some alterations to the camber of the road.

Mrs Worrell said that although her house had escaped direct damage since the measures were introduced, the bollard was hit and damaged by a highway maintenance vehicle just over three weeks ago as it attempted to turn left at the junction, ignoring the sign.

"And even more recently I was woken at about 11.45pm by the sound of two cars smashing into each other - a regular occurrence," she said.

"The situation is getting worse as the village gets bigger with more houses being built.

"It beggars belief that money is being spent on reinforcing the public car park in Wheddon Cross so that HGVs can turn easily.

"Vehicles should not be encouraged to use a car park where there are lots of children waiting for or catching buses and pick-ups daily."

Mrs Worrall said children were also nearby when the highways maintenance vehicle hit the bollard.

"It's going to take a fatality for anything to be done to resolve this situation," she said.

"This is my home and it is where I run my business.

"I don't want to leave it but I really think the only way to make the necessary improvements to the junction would be to knock it down.

"There's already a huge crack in one wall as a result of all the previous hits by vehicles.

"It needs to be looked at by a structural engineer but because we can't get insurance cover, we would have to pay for it ourselves.

"We're not even insured for anything that is unrelated to vehicle damage so we're in an impossible situation."

A county council spokesman told the Free Press: "Since we carried out a package of works in May 2012, including installing a large bollard, new signs and altering the camber, we have received no reports of vehicles striking the Worrells' house.

"Any further work here will have to be carefully judged for its cost-effectiveness."

The spokesman added that the authority had been contacted about a vehicle hitting the bollard a few weeks ago but it was not believed to be a lorry used by Somerset Highways.

Pictured is the highway maintenance vehicle seconds after hitting the bollard outside Sandra and Brian Worrell's house.