It's sat-naff!

HIGH tech sat nav kits are causing traffic jam chaos in a tiny Suffolk close which is not even big enough for a handful of cars.

More like sat naff than sat nav, the dashboard equipment is leading drivers astray and sending them to a dead end instead of the village sports field they were seeking.

Lorries, van, and convoys of parents with young footballers trying to reach the Stennetts Memorial Playing Field in Trimley St Mary are becoming a common site in the tiny Manor Road off High Road.

Residents of the lane are fed up with finding streams of cars full of bewildered parents with young footballers suddenly clogging up the tucked away private, shingled road when they expected to be at the playing field.

Resident Ronald McLean said: “It happens all the time and every time it's because this is the way the sat nav systems are sending them.

“During the week we have delivery vans and lorries turn down here.

“Then on Saturday and Sunday mornings its convoys of cars turning up for matches at Stennetts - sometimes four of five of them all arrive together because they are either parents with youngsters or pub teams who all set off and travel together, following one another.

“Then they all look surprised because they can go no further and there is no where to turn round and they are absolutely stuck.”

Many years ago vehicles could get through to The Avenue via the track but then bollards were put up because some had been speeding, causing danger. The route is used by children walking to school.

Mapping systems may still have it as the shortest route to Stennetts - though signs at High Road do say no entry to vehicles and stress it is access only.

Trimley St Mary Parish Council is to ensure current signs can be seen and look at new ones.

Councillor David Southgate said: “I think we need a sign saying 'Manor Road only' but I don't know if that will solve it as people take their sat nav's instructions as gospel.”

Mr McLean said residents were contacting sat nav companies to see if their systems could be altered and Trimley Red Devils were being asked to contact visiting teams with a proper route.

Has your street been plagued by a sat nav nightmare? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk

OTHER SAT NAV BLUNDERS

Two London paramedics transferring a mental health patient from Ilford to Brentwood ended up doing an eight hour round trip after their sat-nav sent them to Manchester.

A woman had to be rescued from a swollen ford in Leicestershire and wrote off her £96,000 Mercedes sports car after trusting her sat-nav despite passing signs which said the road was unsuitable for cars.

A group of pensioners were stranded for four hours when sat-nav directed their coach down an impassable lane in the Forest of Dean.