AN angry resident in Tavistock's Whitchurch Road has challenged councillors and police to witness the 'daily lottery' of cars and buses speeding past his home.

Will Walker-Smith regularly walks, runs and drives along the road and is calling for action over motorists he claims regularly flout the 30mph speed limit.

Mr Walker-Smith, who lives near the Honour Oak, said: 'Watching the daily lottery of cars weaving around cyclists, overtaking tractors, dodging cars coming out from the feeder roads, I wonder what else residents have to do to get an effective system that will bring speeds down to legal limits, or lower?

'A Monday morning is the worst time — people just whang along there after a lovely weekend, their brains are still in bed and they just don't think about the speed.'

He said despite complaints to the county council 'nothing effective' had happened.

'I've had enough — I just don't believe what they are saying, it's an absolute load of tosh. I know what speeds are done along this road and they are not under 30mph.

'When was the last time the police radar trapped the area? Word gets around if a few people are booked — on a regular basis,' said Mr Walker Smith.

'I invite a representative of Devon County Council Highways, Devon and Cornwall Police and a local councillor to join me on a Monday morning, before more direct action is taken by residents who are sick and tired of being paid lip service by our public servants,' he said.

County traffic engineer Paul Marshall said traffic was monitored last year after complaints about speeding.

He said speed was not found 'a significant issue', but the 'large volume of traffic' was more than expected.

Consequently, a 'rural gateway' and 'urban gateway' were constructed at either end of Whitchurch Road,with new signing encouraging people to use the A386. A 20mph zone is also being introduced near the village primary school.

But the £16,000 rural gateway, a grassy chicane near the Grenofen end of the road, was wrecked by drivers passing over unprotected turfs within days of its construction.

Mr Marshall said: 'Unfortunately, a small number of road-users have taken it on themselves to act in a criminal way.

'We have alerted the police and any instances of vandalism will be dealt with by them.'

Mr Marshall said there would be changes on this section of road, but he could not yet say exactly what they would be.

Tavistock's county councillor Roy Cook, who highlighted the need for action in the area, said: 'The scheme is not completed yet by any means.

'The police have monitored speeds there and they found the average speed was less than 30mph.'

Cllr Cook said the only way to drive speeds down further was to use traffic humps, which were unacceptable to the emergency services and costly to construct.

Borough and town councillor Ted Sherrell, who lives in Whitchurch Road, did not feel the new traffic measures were working — he said he had 'great sympathy' with Mr Walker-Smith.

'They spent a lot of money making it no better,' he said.

Cllr Sherrell felt speed cameras would be the best deterrent.

But Cllr Roger Mathew did not think speeding was a problem in Whitchurch Road.

He said: 'There is a perception, but it is not borne out by fact — speed measurements along Whitchurch Road have not indicated a problem.

'It is a congested road — you can't actually travel very fast along there and my experience of it is that most of the traffic runs between 20 and 30mph along most of the road,' he said.

Inspector Nick Rogers of Tavistock police urged people to contact him if they were concerned.

'If you think there is a problem in your street let us know about it — we will focus local attention on it and if something is identified, we will take further action — it certainly won't be ignored,' he said.