ACTION is being taken to stop lorries getting stuck in a narrow lane that has become a notorious route for drivers following their sat navs.

Lakes Parish Council wants to put up warning signs about Red Bank Road which is unsuitable for articulated vehicles.

Last week The Westmorland Gazette reported on a Romanian driver travelling from Carlisle to Barrow.

His sat nav led him down the single track lane, which links the vale of Grasmere to Langdale.

In trying to reverse the lorry became stuck in a ditch near Deerbolt Cottage, a National Trust property.

Nine police officers, a translator, two highways officers and a recovery vehicle helped with its removal.

Grasmere councillor Eliza-beth Braithwaite said: “How that lorry didn’t topple over into the cottage I don’t know.

“Something has to be done. These warning signs are urgent, and long overdue.

"When one of these lorries gets stuck it just pulls all of the dry stone wall down while trying to get out.”

It is the third time in 18 months that a vehicle has become stuck on the road, which has also caught out drivers pulling caravans.

Deerbolt Cottage tenant Nigel Wainwright said: “Somebody is going to get killed on that road very shortly.”

However, principal high-ways engineer for Cumbria County Council, John Bell told Lakes Parish Council there was no funding for warning signs.

He said a contribution to the estimated £2,329 cost of the signs could promote their delivery in the next financial year.

Lakes Parish has written to CCC offering to contribute to the cost, but first seeking clarification on how much the highways department would be prepared to pay towards the signs.

The council plans to install a large pictorial sign outside the Grasmere garden centre car park.

Two other signs on approach roads to Red Bank would read: ‘Do Not Follow Sat Nav’.

Lakes Parish Council clerk Michael Johnson said the authority would investigate whether the warning needed to be translated into foreign languages.

RAC spokeswoman Lucy Haughey said: “There’s a huge problem with foreign lorry drivers.

"They don’t often have the up-to-date versions of sat nav so the maps are out of date.”