BRIDGWATER MP Ian LiddellGrainger is launching a campaign to reduce the problems caused by lorries on the region’s congested roads.

He’s been given leave to introduce a 10-minute rule Bill which would force satnav providers to remove unsuitable lorry routes from their systems.

And in a separate move he’s calling on the Transport Department and the police to use existing powers to ensure wide-load vehicles carrying mobile homes only travel at night.

Mr Liddell-Grainger, Conservative MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, said his constituency had recorded some of the worst problems caused by lorry drivers taking unsuitable routes provided by their satnav systems.

“We have had them literally stuck between two houses, or sent down cul-de-sacs, or coming to a halt in the face of narrow ” bridges and unnegotiable corners,” he said.

“I do not necessarily blame the drivers; after all they were only obeying orders. But it is totally wrong that when satnav systems providers are informed of these anomalies they seem to take months to correct them, which merely allows more drivers to fall foul of them.

“This Bill will make it compulsory for such information to be corrected immediately.”

On the matter of mobile home transports Mr Liddell-Grainger said they were one of the most common causes of congestion.

“I have had reports of traffic queues more than a quarter of a mile long behind them, particularly on some of the more tortuous routes,” he said.

“I realise mobile homes form an important part of the West Country tourist industry and we cannot be without them. But all too often the drivers supposedly escorting these wide loads don’t know the area, have no idea where the most restricted sections of road are, and cause more problems than they ease.

“Powers already exist to force these loads to move at night and now I intend to see to it that they are exercised.”