Cowling residents are calling for a reduction in the speed limit on Keighley Road following two accidents in the past year.

One occurred when a car hit a traffic island outside Raikes Hall Farm, flipped over and ended up on its top.

Christine Shearer lives at Raikes Hall Farm, where the speed limit decreases to 30mph for vehicles heading into Cowling.

“I’ve lived here for the last 12 years and since then there have been ten crashes on this road, including four just outside our house.”

Mrs Shearer said that she had been campaigning for years to get something done along Keighley Road between Cowling and Glusburn.

She said: “I’ve been trying for the last 12 years, but it’s getting bad now.

“It’s so dangerous on Keighley Road that I won’t ride my two horses on it. You just end up taking your life into your own hands.

“People coming from Glusburn to Cowling are not slowing down until they get right up to the village.

“I think the speed limit should be 40mph and then reduce it to 30mph as they get closer to the village.”

Coun Alan Perrow, chairman of Cowling Parish Council, said: “Some people like to go like a bat out of hell between the two villages.”.

He said a recent survey of speeding traffic found one car going over 100mph and most motorists going above the speed limit.

“The police idea was to go to 30mph or 40mph,” he said. “It may not stop some drivers, but it would make others slow down.”

Ken Martin, of North Yorkshire Highways, said that traffic police felt motorists drove in accordance with the conditions or what they saw – if they were in a built-up area such as a village, then they drove more slowly.

He said: “So a driver would see no houses between the two villages and see no reason for a speed limit. This is why 30mph limits are supposed to apply where there is development on both sides of the road and 40mph where there is development on one side only.

“If a 30 or 40mph limit was proposed, it would bring all speed limits into disrepute and North Yorkshire traffic police would almost certainly object to such a limit.”

Mr Martin confirmed that in addition to the accident outside Raikes Hall Farm, another crash occurred just down the road at Four Lane Ends, when a car drove into a wall and hit a gas connection pipe.

However, he said only one personal injury accident, attributed to excessive or inappropriate speed, had been recorded between Glusburn and Cowling in the past four years.