RESIDENTS of a village between Chard and Ilminster are calling on the county council to take action as their community has been cut in half by speeding vehicles on a dangerous stretch on road.

Villagers in Donyatt say they have been working tirelessly for more than five years to have traffic calming measures introduced on the way in and out of the village to keep its inhabitants safe.

Cars have been clocked travelling as fast as 100mph in some parts of the village, while residents say they have more speeding statistics and anecdotal evidence from crashes to prove changes are needed.

Bill Porritt, who has lived on Pound Corner since 2008, said: “Some lorries come down the hill and I can hear them and know it is a heavy one, but they go round as sweet as a nut because they break in time for the corner.

“Then others you will hear absolutely shuddering as they come round.

“But the lorries are not even the main problem. It is the cars which go speeding round, and it is not the similar times of the morning, they are all the time.

“Quite a number of people who live in Shave Lane have got young children and they have got a buggy and for a short way to their car they have to walk in the road.

“One of the issues we have got is discontinuity of sidewalks, which means you have to cross the road, and where there are sidewalks it is 0.6 metres, or outside Lilac Cottage it is only 0.4 metres.”

Residents are calling on Highways to introduce traffic calming measures on A358 Donyatt Hill on the straight stretches north and south of Pound Corner, as well as further south of the village near Donyatt Bowling Club.

Near the bowling club the speed limit is 40 mph but traffic surveys recorded one car travelling at 100mph in 2015, and a car was caught at 99mph in May.

Kim McMillan-Staff, a Donyatt resident, said: “About six or seven years ago the council did a vibration study in the village because I had complained.

“I had spent a nice amount of money redoing the house and there were already cracks in my nice new walls.

“They were expecting maybe a dozen or so readings above a certain limit in 10 days, and there were about 1,700.

“They came and dug up the road and that sorted it for a little while but it is certainly still noticeable that it has continued.”

Mr Porritt added: “There are so many people who have difficulty crossing the road. There is someone who just wants to walk their dog but has difficulty getting past speeding vehicles so we end up with a village divided in two by this road.”

One resident, Leanne Trout, has seen 17 cars crash into her wall in the space of two and a half years.

She said: “It is extremely difficult and frightening to cross the road if I wish to take (my children) to the park or cycle path – not only with the speeding traffic but the number of accidents occurring on the bend.

“We believe it has only been luck that no one has been serious injured or killed.”

A spokesman for the county council said: “We’re aware of concerns over speeding in this area and have given them some consideration. We recently carried out a feasibility study to look at options for potential measures which could be taken and are currently in discussions with the community regarding the options to take forward.”