TWO Crewkerne campaigners have welcomed the principal of a new 20mph limit zone being agreed for the town but expressed concerns that no deadline has been set for action.

South Somerset Green Party county council candidate and Conservative candidate Marcus Barrett have vowed to keep up campaigns for the highways authority to pay more attention to Crewkerne and Misterton roads.

It comes following the authority agreeing in principle to a 20mph zone, expected to cover areas including North Street, Market Street, East Street, West Street, Gouldsbrook Terrace and Church Street.

Mr Hartshorn said: "We have been waiting for safer roads for years and years – we welcome what seems to be a commitment at last to actually do something to lower speeds but we question if this would have happened if it were not for the election in June.

"20mph was not the only concern we had – little has been done to work on air quality recently for our area and the HGVs still pound our streets."

The agreement follows long campaigns for road safety measures, especially to help protect pupils on their way to Ashlands First School in North Street.

A 20mph zone was the recommendation of a transport study carried out by the county council two years ago, with the town council backing it.

And now money from the Waitrose development – £154,000 – has become available for Crewkerne traffic management, it is hoped the zone can be pushed ahead.

But Mr Barrett is worried possible future cuts could delay the process.

He said: "We both think more could be done for the people of Crewkerne and Misterton. We have huge potholes threatening cyclists, huge lorries thundering through our community as a shortcut, pedestrians walk along streets with impossible pavements, we have a local group working on improvements that County Hall seem to ignore. We need more than a secret meeting in Chard and a few exchanges of letters, we need safer roads now."

County councillor John Dyke, who held a road summit and wrote to the authority following it for the zone to be agreed in principal, said detailed work was ongoing into how it would operate and more details were expected to be given to the town council in a few weeks.