A CALL has been made to instal additional traffic cameras in an East Lancashire village to to slow down giant tractors speeding through its streets.

Ribble Valley North East county councillor Ged Mirfin is concerned about safety in Whalley following complaints from residents and shoppers.

He said the village experiences a high volume of agricultural traffic servicing surrounding farms particularly during harvesting, hay making and the muck spreading season.

And Cllr Mirfin, whose Lancashire County Council division includes Whalley, said this was made more dangerous by the size of the new generation of tractors.

He said local people had reported a near miss recently when a 'super tractor' towing a slurry tank through the centre of the village almost hit a car skidding to a halt as it approached a Zebra crossing with someone using it leaving skid marks visible on the road after braking hard.

Cllr Mirfin said: "I would like to see additional APNR enabled CCTV Cameras to be put at key locations on the hotspots to crackdown on vehicles being driven dangerously through the village.

"I am also campaigning for larger and more prominent round-a-bouts at the junction of Accrington Road and King Street as well as the junction of Clitheroe Road and Station Road.

“This will slow vehicles, especially farm traffic carrying large loads, who will be forced to slow down.

“I am really concerned about the potential for a major accident.

"These are big and powerful vehicles which have enormous momentum even when travelling at 30mph and are very difficult to stop over a short distance.

"It’s particularly horrendous at this time of year with great big agricultural vehicles giving the impression of going like a bat out of hell through the centre of the village.

"Residents reported witnessing a near miss as tractor driver was forced to hit the brakes pulling to a stop many metres down the road.

"The problem is thus far no vehicles had been stopped for dangerous or erratic driving.

“I will be raising this issue with the Police and Crime Commissioner Andrew Snowden, the police inspector for the Ribble Valley,Claire Pearson and the community sergeant Duncan Hall to obtain enhanced monitoring of traffic through the village to deter dangerous driving and to check the footage from the existing CCTV Cameras to see whether the incident can be looked into.

"King Street is not a racetrack”.