Fury at lost lorry drivers

Tank carriers and massive Army articulated lorries heading for a Shropshire base have been getting lost - and ending up more than 10 miles away in a tiny county hamlet of the same name.People living in Donnington, deep in the countryside near Wroxeter, have become used to Dad's Army-style scenes with drivers climbing out, asking for directions to the Ministry of Defence's Donnington base, near Telford, and cursing when they realise their mistake.

They are then faced with climbing back in and attempting to reverse their trucks through the hamlet's country lanes.

Farmer David Strefford said it sometimes happened several times a month. He and others who are getting fed-up are now calling for improved signs in an attempt to deter the mistaken visitors.

The 60-year-old, who has lived in Donnington, the hamlet, all his life, said: "It always worries me because I wonder, if a war broke out, how would they get on?

"We get all kinds of wagons and artics which are extremely large and long. We have had tanks on the back of lorries, and guns; we have had them all."

Mr Strefford said supplies lorries heading for the Asda supermarket in Donnington, Telford, also used to turn up in the months after it was built.

He said residents had gone to Wroxeter and Uppington Parish Council and a small sign had been put up some months ago, but it was doing no good.

Requests have also gone in to Shropshire County Council and the Highways Agency, but Mr Strefford said the problem lay with dodgy map reading skills.

"On the map ours is in large, bold print and their Donnington is in faint print," he said. "Perhaps that's how they get confused.

"I send them in the right direction, but what they say when they realise is unrepeatable. I don't know if they have any sense these people."

No-one from the Ministry of Defence was available to comment.