New traffic calming measures could sound the death knell for Ben Rhydding's remaining handful of shopkeepers.

That is the dramatic claim being made by Bolling Road resident Peter Hawkesworth days before speed humps and other works designed to slow motorists are introduced to the area.

Part of the town's increasingly controversial traffic management scheme, the work will also see chicanes and speed warning road markings added over the next three weeks.

But solicitor Mr Hawkesworth, 55, who has lived in the street for most of his life, says the measures will hit passing trade with potentially disastrous results. He said: "I've seen the village of Ben Rhydding change and decline during the last 50 years, and now things are at an all time low with shops boarded up and the Wheatley Hotel, which was one of the important hubs of the community, closed.

"I think the proposed traffic management scheme is quite Draconian and it is going to hit the shops which are left trading, which are in a fragile position anyway.

"This could be the death knell of those shops because the scheme is meant to discourage people from travelling along Bolling Road. I think the Post Office could go and if that happens everything else will. They will fall one by one like dominoes.

"Drivers used to use the road to avoid Leeds Road but after this lot comes in they are going to say 'forget it' and use the A65 again, to the detriment of our shops.

"People like the idea of improving road safety but how many accidents actually happen in Bolling Road? It can't be that many or else the police would have insisted on speed cameras being installed."

Several shops based on Bolling Road's corner with Wheatley Lane already stand empty, with the former newsagent's building now boarded up and advertising only anti-war graffiti.

The shopkeepers still trading, however, have mixed views about the roadworks.

Peter Bailey, who has run the Four Seasons grocery shop for six years, said: "One of the reasons which influences whether people shop here or not is if they can park. I don't know if speed humps will affect anything. But if they start putting more double yellow lines down there might be a problem.

"People travel around this corner at such speeds, though, that something has to be done, and all the parents who live around here will be in favour of anything that slows the traffic down."

Julie Hatfield, however, who runs the neighbouring Hoover Service shop with her husband, said she was certain business would suffer. "I don't think the plans are really convincing and I think they will be bad for trade," she said.

"We get a lot of passing trade and people travelling here from Menston, Guiseley, Addingham, Burley - all over. Parking is more of an issue.

"My husband has run the business here for around 20 years and the area has all gone down hill since then. It's sad, really, because there is nothing much here now."

Manager of interior design store House of Elliott, Heather Howe, meanwhile, thinks the days of passing trade have disappeared already.

She said: "The cars don't stop anyway, they are just going through, and there hasn't been much passing trade since the newsagent closed. But if they started enforcing double yellow lines here that would be a problem, because we rely on people being able to park where they like.

"Our custom comes from people who know about us and pop in. I went to the consultation meeting to see the plans and they are very comprehensive, but I don't know if they are that necessary.

"I know local parents will support them but they often park illegally when they are dropping their children off at school, so they are part of the problem."

Bradford's Environment chief, Ilkley parish and district Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, said it was a matter of trying to balance different interests.

She said: "It does worry me that whenever you put in restrictive traffic calming measures people look for alternative routes.

"I think the shopkeepers in Ben Rhydding were very pleased with the plans to begin with, and the parents there who walk their children to school appear to be very happy with the recommendations.

"But the future viability of the local shops is a big concern because a few are boarded up already, and if we lose the others, especially if the Wheatley Hotel is sold too, the heart of the village will be lost."