A COUPLE are campaigning to make the road outside their house safer after vehicles crashed into the garden for the fifth time into two years.

Ian and Anne Dickie, who live towards the bottom of Dukes Brow, Blackburn, believe the only way to put a stop to the problems is to make the narrow road one way.

A petition has been started with their neighbours in a bid to persuade Blackburn with Darwen Council to take action.

However Coun Andy Kay, executive member for regeneration at the council, has ruled out the one-way option, but hinted that it was looking into other measures.

Mr Dickie, 53, a landscaper, was standing at his front window last Saturday afternoon when a car crashed through the garden wall and came to a halt inches from him.

Then on Monday a taxi trying to drive around a bin wagon clipped their wall again.

In 2004, cars that had lost control twice knocked the wall down.

And last year a school bus had to swerve out of the way of a car coming down the road, and ended up crashing through the bay window of the Dickie's home.

Despite the incidents, it is understood that there has been no-one injured on the road in the past few years.

Mrs Dickie, 50, a secretary, added: "Had we been in the garden in any of the incidents then we could have been killed. Do we have to wait for someone to die before action is taken?

"It is a very narrow road and we believe if the road was made one way that would solve the problems."

Also requested in the petition are better footpaths and for wardens to patrol the road more frequently to book illegally-parked cars.

Coun Kay said: "Dukes Brow is one of a limited number of entry and exit points into a highly populated area. As such, if one direction of traffic flow is blocked from using Dukes Brow the alternative routes would become a lot busier.

"Also, removing one direction of traffic would very likely increase the speed of the vehicles in Dukes Brow. We are looking at providing measures to highlight the hazard."

Sergeant Stuart Isherwood, of the road policing unit covering Blackburn, said: "The road, is not busy enough to warrant a permanent speed camera and there is no accident record as such."