Herefordshire Council will work with Ledbury Town Council to improve road safety at Parkway; but that will not include a speed reduction, from 40mph to 30mph.

This is despite evidence that most motorists passing through greatly exceed the existing speed limit.

The town council is currently looking at traffic calming measures for the A417 through the village, the road being one of the gateway entrances to the market town and the main link to the M50 and the motorway system.

These measures are set to include speed indicator devises and white gates on the verge, on both ends of the village, to let motorists know they are entering a residential area.

There have been a number of serious accidents in recent years, and a recent speed survey revealed that 85 per traffic of traffic passing through Parkway was breaking the 40mph speed limit by an average of more than 8mph; and at one point through the village there was found to be "no compliance at all" with the speed limit.

But despite this, Herefordshire Council, which is the highways authority, has now indicated that the 40mph limit will remain.

A Herefordshire Council spokesperson said: “The council are aware of the local concerns in the area, and at the request of the local member, we have recently reviewed the speed limit.

“However this assessment showed that the request to reduce the speed limit to 30mph did not meet the appropriate guidelines and it is likely that given this this would not produce any greater compliance in this location.

"We are aware that the police do undertaken enforcement in the area. The decision was therefore taken to maintain the existing speed limit."

The spokesman added: “We take all accidents seriously and investigate to understand the issues and have reviewed the most recent accident information as part of our review.

"We will continue to work with the town council to identify appropriate measures to improve safety in this location.”

Parkway resident, Jane Hopkins, a former town councillor, has gone on record to say " near misses happen every day and every day traffic seems to increase.

" It is only set to get worse as logic tells you that more houses mean more traffic, and Ledbury is set to expand."