A SAFETY campaign is this week being launched in three West Devon communities, in an effort to drive down traffic speeds in the area.
Milton Abbot Grouped Parish Council says it is increasingly concerned over the speed in which cars are travelling through the villages of Chillaton, Dunterton and Milton Abbot.
The council is in the process of delivering leaflets to every household in the three parishes, urging residents to kill their speed ? and spread the word among anyone they know who regularly uses roads in the area.
Amanda Westcott, vice-chairman of the council, said: ?All the roads have a 30mph speed limit but people just whizz through ? we are seeing it all the time.
?Some of the roads are very narrow and others have no pavements ? for young children and mums with pushchairs, it?s really highly dangerous, especially when a lorry passes you at about 60mph.?
Mrs Westcott said the council had been worried for some time about the dangers of speeding traffic. The leaflet campaign was the start of a positive effort to try and encourage drivers to be more careful. A particular area of concern was the walk from Milton Abbot to the village school.
The council has also held meetings with Devon County Council?s local service officer, Brian George, to investigate other ways in which the speeding problem could be tackled.
?He has been out to see us a couple of times and given us a few ideas and talked about money available, although there wouldn?t be any funding until April 2005 at least,? said Mrs Westcott.
Mr George congratulated the council on its proactive approach and said drivers should be aware that the speeds in which they drove their cars affected not just other people?s communities but their own as well.
He said he would be meeting Milton Abbot councillors in the future and there may be limited methods of increasing road safety in the parish which could be included in the county?s limited budget for 2005/06.
However, the most effective measure anyone could take was to drive within the speed limit at all times.