Calls have been made for urgent repairs to a busy road after a section collapsed leaving a lorry in a ditch.

Police had to close Blackhouse Lane in Little Cornard on Tuesday afternoon following the incident.

Efforts to retrieve the vehicle from the roadside were hampered after another HGV following it down the single lane road was unable to move.

The road is the link between Bures Road and Wells Hall Road and is the main route to Great Cornard football ground.

A spokeswoman for Suffolk Police said: “We received a call around 4.15pm to say a lorry had gone into the ditch. The side of the road had caved in due to instability.

“Another HGV had turned into Blackhouse Lane and couldn’t get through or reverse. A crane had to be used to remove the truck from the ditch, and it has left a massive hole in the road just opposite the lane leading to the football ground. We left it in the hands of Suffolk highways.”

Nearby resident and Sudbury Town Council highways committee chairman, Tony Platt, said he had been complaining to Suffolk County Council about the state of Blackhouse road for the past two years.

He said: “Several of us have voiced our concerns about the numerous pot holes and the fact that the road is collapsing into the ditch in numerous places.

“In recent months, we have had to replace the suspension on our car and buy new tyres because of the state of the road surface. It’s only 8ft wide but is a very busy road, particularly during term time. We asked for it to be reinforced with strong sides, but we have constantly been fobbed off with promises that the resurfacing work is in the 2013-14 programme. An accident of this kind was bound to happen.”

Last night, a county council spokesman told the EADT: “We have taken an emergency measure of closing the road. It was in highways’ program to make improvements to Blackhouse Lane but these works will now be brought forward. We will be meeting our contractors to discuss it today.”