A Rural resident is complaining that Bradford council has ignored her pleas for road relief.

Edwina Bland, who lives at Scar Top overlooking Stanbury and haworth, says traffic in the area must be slowed down.

Mrs Bland says she is pleased Keighley area panel - the council's local arm - is paying £600 for 'ducks crossing' signs near her home and hopes it will encourage drivers to slow down. But she believes a speed limit is needed to protect human life.

"There are more sleeping policemen in the Lawkholme and Malsis Road areas of Keighley than there are real ones," she says. "All we are told is that we live in a derestricted area. Our problem is not being addressed."

A spokesman for Bradford council's highways department responds: "Mrs Bland has spoken to us about her general concerns about traffic in Scar Top and has requested the introduction of a 30mph limit.

"The Department of Transport recommends that 30mph limits should not be used on lightly populated rural roads and if this limit was introduced it would be very difficult for the police to enforce due to manpower resources. However, we will continue to monitor the situation."

The hope is that the new warning signs will help make drivers aware that there are geese in the area and encourage them to slow down.

But Mrs Bland believes the council is not taking Scar Top's traffic problems seriously. "People in rural areas don't have the same priority as in the towns," she says. "It is almost as if the council is saying our lives aren't worth anything."

Mrs Bland says so far wildlife may have been the only casualty of speeding drivers but she fears a human life will be lost before a speed limit is introduced. "Something big is waiting to happen," she says. "There are lots of minor bumps."

Mrs Bland points out that the country road is a commuter route to Leeds and Bradford from Lancashire. She counted 230 vehicles passing her Scar Top Farm Cottage home between 7.30am and 8.30am last Thursday.

She says drivers travelling too fast have twice demolished a water trough outside her home as they tried to avoid oncoming traffic and it has been damaged several times. She says she loves Saturdays and Sundays when speeding commuter traffic is replaced by slow-moving tourist vehicles.

She says what was suitable for a speed derestriction 30 or 40 years ago is no longer the case. "All these minor roads should have a 40mph speed limit," she insists.

Mrs Bland's claims come just a few weeks after rural residents complained in the Keighley News about dangerous driving between Oxenhope and Leeming. They said Bradford council has failed to respond to their concerns.

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