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Colin Case, became so concerned about the volume of heavy traffic in Ruyton XI Towns he decided to do his own survey: "I stood at the top of my garden, which overlooks the road and I counted trucks for an hour or so and I laboriously wrote down the phone numbers on the side of the trucks and I phoned them all up."

He asked the lorry owners why their drivers were passing through the village: "In over a third of the answers it was 'Well, no, it shouldn't be anywhere near there, it's supposed to be on the A5.'"

Mr Case believes the problem arises because sat navs give the shortest route from one place to another.

Traffic problems in Ruyton XI Towns

Shropshire Council has begun a survey of lorries in the village, stopping drivers as they pass through and asking them where they are going.

Martin Withington is from the highways department. He said the survey was a response to concerns from local people: "I think people are concerned about the size of the HGVs which are getting bigger all the time."

Mr Withington said once all the data had been collected the council would decide what to do: "There are ways in which we can actually introduce legislation which stops lorries using certain routes, but that's not always easy to enforce in certain circumstances because some lorries have to be here."

Walking bus

He said advisory signs could be put up to try and discourage lorries from using the B4397 and get them back onto the main roads.

Colin Case said he hoped the problem could be dealt with quickly because the school was shortly to introduce walking buses to the local primary school to cut congestion at the beginning and end of the day and heavy lorries posed a safety problem.

He said he was pleased that the council had become involved: "I think it is a very positive step forward and I think if we can confirm that a large proportion are through traffic and find an imaginative way of resolving that to a degree, it will make a huge difference."