AN eight-year-old Tavistock school girl, furious at a report she read in the Times last week, has challenged a local councillor to walk to school with her, so he can see first-hand the dangers of the route.

Jessamine Smith walks down Spring Hill on her way to Tavistock Primary School every day. She was very concerned by the recent decision of West Devon's partnership committee not to introduce a £26,000 package of traffic calming measures in the area.

Jessamine said: 'Me and my brother and my mum have to walk across that road every weekday to go to school.

'People hardly ever indicate to show they are going up the hill, and they drive very fast — this makes it very scary crossing the road.

'Although big lorries shouldn't travel up and down Spring Hill, they still do. We also see lots of old people having trouble crossing the road to get to the hospital.'

And Jessamine issued a challenge to Cllr Roger Mathew, who said partnership committee members did not have enough evidence that the traffic calming package would work to vote it in permanently.

In an e-mail to Cllr Mathew, Jessamine said: 'We would like to invite you to walk to school with us on a dark, wet and windy winter morning, so you can see what it's like!'

Cllr Mathew told the Times he had 'neither accepted nor rejected' Jessamine's proposal.

'I have responded to her and I have told her the reason why we came to the conclusion that we did,' he said.

Cllr Mathew said the traffic calming proposals had been 'cobbled together' and would have created more problems than they solved, causing increased traffic congestion in other areas of the town.

He said he had not 'dismissed out of hand' Jessamine's invite to walk to school, although as a matter of courtesy, he would have to clear it with the ward member for Tavistock North, as he represents the south side of the town.

'If she wants to issue me with a challenge some time in January I will do it — we shall see,' said Cllr Mathew.

The traffic calming measures proposed for the Spring Hill junction included a mini roundabout, a new footpath and build-outs in the road.

The committee considered putting in the measures for a trial period, but were told this would be considerably more expensive than going ahead with the scheme on a permanent basis.

A spokesman for Devon County Council's local services department said at present, there were no plans to draw up any alternative solutions to the problem.