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The beach at the picturesque Hengistbury Head.

Passengers have hit out at a 'farcical' council-run land train at a beauty spot after a driver shortage put it out of action for the ninth time in three months.

The popular Hengistbury Head Land Train in Dorset has already been besieged by a series of mechanical failures over the summer.

Now, the stricken service, which is overseen by BCP Council, has suffered further ignimony as it was forced to shut down for three days to enable their only available driver to do some 'mandatory training'. This had been arranged at the same time that their second driver was on annual leave.

The novelty 'Noddy' train service, which takes thousands of visitors a year 1.5 miles from the car park at the Hengistbury Head nature reserve to Mudeford Spit, was launched by the late Joyce and Roger Farris in 1968.

It was operated independently, running for 364 days a year, until it was controversially taken over by the local council in 2015 who terminated their contract.