Four lower dale parish councils are banding together to potentially campaign for 40mph buffer zones at the entrances of their villages.
Representatives of Gainford, Winston, Ingleton and Staindrop were due to meet informally this week to discuss speeding problems in their areas.
Each of the villages undertook a survey of residents about their traffic concerns earlier this year.
Gainford Parish Council heard during its meeting last week that the village survey had shown that many people support 40mph buffer zones before the 30mph limit going through the villages.
Cllr Sarah Hannon, who represents the village on the traffic group, said: “From the surveys there are people who have requested 20mph limits, but some people don’t want that.
“One of the other things that comes up is the use of 40mph zones as a buffer zones. We do see the traffic in front of the GP practice isn’t as fast as it was when you went straight from 60 to 30.”
She added that the 30mph limit in the village needed to be extended further out, particularly since new housing is being built outside the current limit at both entrances to the village along the A67.
Cllr Hannan said: “The other thing is to request that the county council looks at legislation. As far as my interpretation of the legislation is, they should be moving the 30mph zones out beyond both of the new developments.
“These 30mph zones are meant to start where the houses start.
“We shouldn’t be lobbying them to move the 30mph signs, they should actually be implementing it.
“We will be pointing it out to them, and we will be pointing it out to them as a group of parish councils rather than individuals, so it has much greater force.
“Instead of individual parish councils having Durham County Council saying no thrown at them, this is the first time that there is a untied front and a group of parish council representing a significant number of people all speaking with the same voice.”
Cllr Hannan also told members that there was a need for safe crossing in Gainford and Staindrop because both villages had lost their school crossing patrols.
She said: “It going to be difficult to get a crossing, because crossings are expensive. But, getting the buffer zones and some enforcement I don’t think is unrealistic.
“But we will be asking for crossings – Staindrop desperately needs a crossing. We have lost both of our lollipop ladies so it will be nice to get a crossing of some sort.”
Parish council chairman Cllr Andrew Wilkinson noted that a major selling point for the new housing estate at the west entrance of Gainford was the availability of places at the primary school, but it would be unsafe for children to cross the A667 to get to the school.
