Long-suffering villagers signed a petition and waved banners in their second rally protesting at HGVs using their narrow streets.

About 150 people were at The Lees, Yalding, yesterday to take part in a demonstration aimed at highlighting the problem of rat-running lorries.

Yalding Parish Council has been fighting for vehicles over 17 tonnes to be banned from the village’s main Town Bridge and the B2162 for 11 years.

The fight has recently been stepped up as the problem has worsened.

Joining villagers were members of the South West Maidstone Traffic Management Partnership (TRAMP.

Parish council chairman, Cllr Geraldine Brown, said: “We have said all along, we are not asking for a lorry ban. We appreciate there are businesses that need to have deliveries, but what we are asking for is for a way of controlling the movement of vehicles."

She also told protesters about a recent accident in which a young mother suffered injuries to her upper body when a lorry hit her while trying to avoid hitting another lorry in Benover Road.