A BURNLEY councillor has called for a police clampdown on cars speeding along a busy estate road.

Traffic surveys carried out in the Brunshaw area showed that cars were frequently speeding along roads at well above the 20mph limit.

But a meeting of the Burnley Three Tier Forum, comprising councillors from county, borough and parish councils, was told that police did not have the resources to tackle the problem.

In December, manual cameras in Brunshaw Avenue captured motorists doing average speeds of 29.5mph, while in Morse Street drivers were averaging 24mph.

Brunshaw’s Labour councillor, Lian Pate, said traffic calming measures introduced by Lancashire County Council had ‘achieved nothing’.

Coun Pate said: “I raised the point that it's okay to say they did a speed check and the average speed is nearly 30mph on Brunshaw Avenue, but what were they going to do about it?

“They said that the police said they didn't have the resources to enforce it. I think if they have the resources to stand there with the mobile gun they have the resources to enforce it."

The previous Conservative administration had spent £9.2million in introducing 20mph zones across the county, she added.

Coun Pate said: "They’ve put the signs up, but the police are openly saying they haven’t got the resources to enforce it, and word will get round quickly.

“Nothing has been achieved, the fact that people are driving at average speeds of 30mph in a residential area is shocking. One police officer told me he’d clocked a bus doing 44mph.

“What we need to do is stop that happening, if they came over even once and enforced it, it would calm the speeds down for a little while."

Chief Insp Debbie Howard, from Lancashire’s road policing department, said: “20mph speed limit areas are enforceable and the police can enforce them. However our key aim is to achieve compliance with the limits rather than prosecution.

“Police enforcement resulting in prosecutions is considered when all other options have been exhausted. While police resources are an issue for us, this is not the main reason for not enforcing in the Brunshaw Avenue and Morse Street areas.”