RESIDENTS in the Bridestowe area who want a speed limit on a section of the old A30 are to form a campaign group to press their case.

The residents attended a meeting of Bridestowe Parish Council last Thursday to urge support for their calls for a 40mph limit from Combebow to Stone Farm, just outside Bridestowe.

Council chairman John Leonard said the council three years ago expressed concern to Devon County about the speed of traffic on the road but their fears went unheeded.

He said: 'One of the great dangers is that nobody seems to be policing the road. A lot of big lorries come along the road from Lifton and on a Sunday motorcyclists use it as race-track. It's a nasty piece of road.

'But the parish council has no powers to impose a speed limit, all we can do is ask others to look at it — there is a strict criteria for speed limits.'

Mr Leonard said the parish council would write to the police asking for speeds to be monitored. 'Unless the speed limit is adequately policed it will not mean anything,' he said.

Cllr Gill Squires said a speed camera sign might prove effective in causing traffic to slow down.

Sylvia Crocker, who lives alongside the road at Cross Lanes, said a protest by the parish council would 'carry more clout' than those by individuals.

Vanessa Pearce, who had drummed up support for residents to attend the meeting, asked for the council's support if people wrote to the Highways Authority.

Neon Reynolds, who lives alongside the road near Combebow, said the best way forward would be for objectors to form a small group and work out a plan of campaign.

'It's the people who live on the road who have got to do the work and then ask the parish council to support it,' he said.

It was suggested the campaigners contact West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett and county councillor Christine Marsh, seeking their support for a speed limit.

Inspector Keith Perkin, of Okehampton police, told the Times that there were many requests for speed limits in the area's villages.

'They all have a good case, but we recognise the potential for speeding on that road because of its layout. We will be looking at the area,' he added.