A village long plagued by lorry traffic has just been presented with the 'fresh hell' of 12 months of roadworks to repair damage which villagers say the lorries created themselves.

£8million of taxpayers money will be spent strengthening the ancient embankment along Dinah's Hollow (a single lane C road) at Melbury Abbas in Dorset, nicknamed 'Village of the Jammed'. 

The village has had lorry traffic funnelled through it for more than a decade from the nearby A350 onto the C13 (or Dinah's Hollow) which runs through the village.

Resident Derek Coombes said: 'It has been hell for years with so much traffic coming through the village at getting stuck at pinch points, now we are going to have fresh hell of 12 months of diversions.'

Lorries are sent down this way to create an unofficial one way system for lorries - northbound using the A road and southbound using the C road.

Fed up locals have said that these expensive repairs wouldn't be needed at all had Dorset Council not decided to send heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) down the country lane in the first place.

Around 1,000 mature trees are to be felled for the work and steel rods driven into the embankment to reinforce it.

Highway officials fear that a landslide could happen and crush passing traffic.

However, Mr Coombes said: 'The HGVs diversion has caused this.

Melbury Abbas in Dorset near Shaftesbury has been nicknamed the 'Village of the Jammed' by quick witted locals as their village is jammed up regularly with HGVs 

'It has been hell for years with so much traffic coming through the village at getting stuck at pinch points', resident Derek Coombes said

Another resident Vincent Crowse has had his boundary wall damaged by an HGV recently

'Years ago there were signs up stating the C13 was not suitable for HGVs and the council just took them down when they started diverting them off the A350.

'Now the council say the bank is unsafe and a car could be crushed if it collapsed.

'I have been here for 32 years and any fall I have seen has been absolutely minimal.

'But if the bank has been weakened it is because the lorries that make a hell of a vibration when they drive through the hollow.

'The road wasn't built for them.'

He added: 'I haven't got a clue why this work is going to take a whole year.' 

Another villager, Barry Freeman echoed Mr Coombes, saying: 'The current problems, eroding the base of the Hollow's sides, have only been caused by HGVs of ever-increasing size and weight, which a child could tell you are inappropriate for a country lane (not even a B-road) with narrow width and sheer sides.'

Vincent Crowse has had his boundary wall damaged by an HGV recently.

Dorset Council are proposing to spend £8million to shore up the embankments on the C13