FRUSTRATED villagers have said there will soon be a fatality on the road outside their homes due to the volume and speed of drivers.

The road runs from the A49, south of Hereford, through the village of Callow and comes out on the A465 Belmont Road, near to the roundabout at Belmont Tesco.

There is a speed limit of 30mph through the main settlement and the road then changes to a 40mph limit.

But villagers said this is regularly ignored by drivers and there are numerous crashes and near-misses.

Liz Langford said: “It is only a matter of time until there is a fatality here.

“A recent survey indicated that 1,500 vehicles a day use our village.

These roads are not built for this volume.

“However, it is the attitude of drivers coming through that we all worry about.

“There are 40 mph and 30mph speed limits but nobody bothers with those. Villagers who do, get overtaken and get unpleasant signals.”

She said over the last three years, four vehicles have crashed into the church wall.

Other residents tell of drivers who have crashed into the hedge and lorries which are too big to get past each other on the narrow road.

Julie Taylor was so concerned about cars hitting her house that she has put a post on the grass verge in front of her home. Just last week this was knocked down by a car which mounted the verge on the bend.

Residents believe it has become worse over the last few years as people try to avoid the queues of traffic on Belmont Road.

They said they feel ignored by Herefordshire Council and the police when they ask for further road safety measures to be introduced, but the council said it has been engaging with the parish council and that the Southern Link Road will help alleviate traffic volume.

Sophie Glover, chairman of Callow and Haywood Parish Council, said: “Just like the rest of rural Herefordshire, our lanes suffer from speed and the quantity of traffic, which is ever increasing as people strive to find a quicker route to their destinations. It is great that the local community is helping to make public their concerns.

Callow village has cyclists, horse riders, and pedestrians using its lanes - please, drivers, go more slowly through our village.”