A councillor is calling for a weight restriction on a narrow road where a wagon demolished a stone wall, iron railings and crashed into a stone gate pillar.

In the same middle of the night manoeuvre the articulated lorry also bulldozed the corner of a barn, wrenching out its quoin stones.

Now district councillor Chris Moorby, himself a heavy goods vehicle driver, is calling on North Yorkshire County Council to impose a 7.5 tonne limit along Flat Lane from Cow Bridge to Bend Gate, in Long Preston.

It is not the first time lorries have tried to use the road, which is about a car width, after being directed there by sat nav devices.

Mr Moorby spotted the damage when he was passing and believes that it is so extensive to the barn that the building will have to reconstructed.

He said: “It looks like the driver tried to get the vehicle out of the lane and onto the A628. What on earth posessed him to go along Flat Lane I do not know because it can be seen at the onset that this lane is not suitable for HGVs. I suspect that he was following instructions from a sat nav.

“If these companies want to transport from this area and on these roads they should send the appropriate vehicles to do the job or make sure that the drivers are aware of the problems on these routes.”

If a weight restriction was imposed, it would be flagged up on the special HGV sat nav equipment that was now available and such incidents should not happen, Coun Moorby added.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire County Council said: “We acknowledge that there have been problems with HGVs using this road and we have been in touch with the local resident and the local county councillor.

“Although the problems have been occurring at the A682 (east) end of Flat Lane, we are planning to erect ‘Unsuitable for HGVs’ signs where the lorries turn onto Flat Lane at the west end where it meets the B6478 at Cow Bridge.”