VILLAGERS in Holcombe have enlisted the help of their MP in a desperate attempt to put the brakes on speeding motorists.

Residents handed Bury North MP David Chaytor a 400-name petition demanding action be taken to stop drivers from speeding through their village.

For the past year, the Holcombe Society has been leading a campaign for traffic calming measures.

Society member Dr Falmai Binns said: "Because there has not been a fatal accident nothing has been done. So we decided to go straight to our MP and present him with this petition.

" It has been signed by local residents, parents of children who attend the local primary school and tourists who have visited the village.

"We live with cars speeding through our village all the time. No-one has been killed but there have been accidents."

The Holcombe Society is calling for the narrowing of parts of the road where traffic on one lane would have to give way to oncoming motorists, rather than the use of speed cameras.

"We want more long-term measures to be put into place, said Dr Binns. We had a positive meeting with Mr Chaytor who seemed to understand our concerns. He said he would arrange a meeting with senior highway officers.

"We need something to be done now. It is too late to do something when there has been a death,"said Dr Binns.

Highways officials have said that Holcombe Village does not meet the criteria for traffic calming measures.

However the issue of speeding in the north of the borough will again be discussed at Tuesday's (November 16) meeting of the area board, to be held at Chirst Church Centre, Great Eaves Road, Ramsbottom, at 7pm.