VILLAGERS whose requests for traffic calming measures have been constantly turned down are demanding highways chiefs justify speed restrictions implemented elsewhere in the borough.

For the past two years, residents in Holcombe Village, together with the Holcombe Society, have had their pleas for measures to slow motorists dismissed, despite winning the backing of Bury North MP David Chaytor.

Highways chiefs say this is because the road running through the village is not an accident blackspot.

In a letter to Dr Falmai Binns, of the Holcombe Society, Mr Ian Lord, the manager of traffic management and road safety services, said: "The current collision record indicates that no further measures can be justified at this present time."

At last week's meeting of the Ramsbottom, Tottington and North Manor area board, Dr Binns said: "We believe it would be helpful to look at the pattern of significant traffic calming measures installed by Bury Council over the past three years together with fatal accident patterns. I would like to move a motion therefore that the area board request these separate lists for our study together."

She added: "It may be that exceptions to this fatality regulation have been made which could justify action measures by highways chiefs in Holcombe Village itself."

A recent traffic survey confirmed that there was a problem with vehicles exceeding the speed. But no action has been taken to slow traffic because of the lack of serious accidents on the road.

Dr Binns told the Bury Times: "The potential of a serious accident is there. The only solution is engineering works on the road or permanent cameras, which have been both been turned down. The basis for both decisions is the lack of a fatal accident in the village.

"Collisions in Holcombe are common but are largely unrecorded - most of us have had cars damaged, and there is a history of walls being damaged too. A significant point is that with the high engineering of cars now fatal accidents are increasingly rare - but of course human engineering has not improved so pedestrians are at increasing risk as the cars feel safe to break the law."

She added: "It should not take a fatal accident before something is done."

Les Watts, highway officer, said he would pass on the statistics justifying traffic calming measures in other parts of the borough to Dr Binns.