Owner of ‘most hit’ house calls for lorries ban

A HOMEOWNER whose property is said to be the “most hit” in the country has called for lorries to be banned from his village after eight strikes in the space of a year.

Mark Kilbey, 57, says he lives in constant fear of trucks smashing into his 16th-century cottage in Wingham, Kent, after a series of collisions.

The latest crash happened on Monday, three hours after workmen had finished repairing previous damage.

Mr Kilbey said: “I jokingly told the builders to leave the ladders at the side of the house because they’d be back in a few weeks. It turns out it was only a few hours. It took the biscuit.”

He said: “I bought the house in 2015 knowing it had been hit before but I had no idea it would become this bad. I reckon it’s been hit at least 20 times.”

Insurance companies representing the lorry companies have forked out around £60,000 in house repair costs over five years, according to the former Metropolitan Police detective.

Mr Kilbey says the only way to prevent future incidents is to force the biggest lorries to take alternative routes.

The besieged homeowner said: “I’m not querying the job that lorry drivers have to do, they are following their satnav. What I am saying is they don’t need to be turning in a road they don’t fit in. There are other routes they could use.”

He has had numerous “fruitless” discussions with local authorities including Kent county council, Dover district council and the local parish council. A county council spokesman said: “We very much sympathise with Mr Kilbey but unfortunately this is difficult for KCC to resolve as a highways authority.”