SPEEDING traffic along a Highworth road is forcing residents to take their lives into their own hands as they walk their children to school along a narrow footpath.

For years, householders living in a cluster of houses along the A361 Swindon Road have lived with lorries, cars and other vehicles trundling along the wide main road past their houses at speed.

Residents while they are forced to clutch onto the hedgerow as they wind their way along the narrow strip of footpath.

Simon Apps, 49, who lives in Swindon Road, has been urging Swindon Borough Council to do something about it since he first moved in during 2000.

He and other residents they successfully managed to get the speed limit reduced to 40mph, but Simon says more needs to be done to secure pedestrians’ safety.

“The footpath between Redlands House and 16 Swindon Road is far too narrow. What footpath is there is overgrown making it even narrower," he said.

“The wing mirrors of the HGVs, buses and other vehicles speeding past come so close one feels one needs to jump out of the way so they don’t kill you. There is zero physical protection for pedestrians.

“It is frightening for anyone who dares take their life in their hands and walk up to Highworth.

"We cannot expect our children to walk to and from school on their own on this dangerous section of road – it is terrifying enough as an adult.”

Simon’s latest calls for action were prompted after he walked his 10-year-old son to school.

He said: “I walked with my son to school this morning and It is terrifying. You have to walk in single file along the path.

“It is difficult to use a child buggy on this footpath without having one wheel overhanging the pavement and completely impossible to use a double buggy.”

Swindon Borough Council said maintaining safe roads is a priority.

Spokesman Kevin Burchall said: “We take all road safety concerns very seriously and have reassessed the speed limit along Swindon Road on a number of occasions.

“We recently measured the speed limit on this particular section of Swindon Road against the Department for Transport’s latest criteria and, as 85 per cent of drivers observe it, 40mph remains the most appropriate speed limit.

"The section of the A361 referred to is not a village so could only qualify for a 30mph limit with the addition of extensive traffic calming.

“Funding for such schemes is dependent on accident statistics, vehicle volumes and vehicle speeds and it is unlikely the current statistics would support a funding bid as there have been only four accidents in five years on this stretch of road, none of which involved pedestrians or heavy goods vehicles.

"None of the accidents were due to excessive speed.”