Sat-nav drivers directed to a bridge that doesn't exist

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Up to 100 motorists are thought to have been wrongly directed

It is hardly a compelling advert for any drivers thinking of buying a satellite navigation system.

Motorists relying on the devices are being directed across a major river via a bridge that doesn't exist.

The faulty instructions have flummoxed more than 100 drivers trying to reach the village of Hampton Loade in Shropshire.

Thankfully, no one has yet ended up in the Severn as a result of the blunder, but some have come uncomfortably close.

Instead, puzzled motorists are met with a dead end at the water's edge, where there is only a foot ferry.

Marketing executive Mat Danks, 30, is among those led astray by the anomaly.

Heading to a meeting in nearby Highley last week, he decided to use his £200 sat-nav system.

Mr Danks said: 'I programmed the sat-nav so it would take me via the best route.

'I've heard about these blunders in the past but mine has always been fine. It's never let me down until now.

'I'd never been to Highley before and I do rely on it to find places. But when I got to where the road bridge should have been, it was just a dead end.

'Obviously there was no way I was going through the water. I had to turn around and go on a ten-mile detour.

'I wasn't very happy, but I suppose it would have been much worse going through the river in my Alfa Romeo!'

Ferry service operator Darren Page has seen scores of irate motorists forced into a U-turn.

He said: 'I'd say there's been at least 100 cases in the past 18 months. There has never been a road bridge here.

'The ferry has been operating for more than 400 years but we only take people, not cars.'

 

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