Campaigners are calling for the size of petrol tankers going up one south Bucks road to be reduced and signage improved, amid fears one of them could go into a house causing a “fireball” if it exploded.

It comes after residents spotted a “huge three rear axled fully loaded” petrol tanker attempting to go up Coombe Lane in Hughenden Valley to get to the BP petrol station in Walter’s Ash on a dark evening, coming to a stop at the junction with Burnham Road and Wedgewood Drive.

Janet Idle, co-chair of Hughenden Valley residents association and community correspondent for the Bucks Free Press, said the tanker blocked Coombe Lane to traffic both ways, including the number 300 bus, and that police had to close the road for “several hours” until the tanker could be reversed back down the road.

According to Mrs Idle, a tanker has crashed into a house on Burnham Road in the past, and she wants to avoid another "nasty" incident like it.

She said: “It was enormous, the length of someone’s garden. 

“It couldn’t get up the hill, the brakes weren’t strong enough to hold it. I think the driver was pretty scared.

“This is the third tanker to get stuck on the hill. 

“We want a campaign to reduce the size of the tankers going up there. Something must be done.

“We don’t want another nasty incident of a lorry going into a house. It could go off like a bomb.”

Resident and eyewitness Jerry Coombe said signage near the road needed to be improved, calling it “unhelpful and uninformative”.

He said: “This is not the first time it has happened here.

“I have had my fence damaged in the past because petrol tankers haven’t been able to get up the hill. 

“If the tanker hits any of the houses on that street, it could be a catastrophe. There could be a fireball if it exploded.

“This road is extremely dangerous. It is a very steep hill and there are no street lights there, it is pitch black.

“There needs to be a sign at the bottom of the road to say there is a hill and it has a 16 per cent gradient – the signage is unhelpful and uninformative.

“Drivers have no idea what they are getting into until it is far too late.”

A spokesman at BP has been contacted for comment.