COMMUNITY leaders have called for traffic speeds to be lowered in Wallingford to make it safer and more pedestrian friendly.

Wallingford Partnership — a group made up of business leaders, traders, volunteers, councillors and Wallingford School headteacher Wyll Willis – want the idea investigated, claiming it would cut car use and pollution and improve safety on the roads.

Environmental campaigners from Sustainable Wallingford have also backed the proposal to reduce the speed limit from 30mph to 20mph.

But Oxfordshire County Council said it would only consider a 20mph limit if a similar scheme proposed for Oxford proved successful.

Partnership chairman Derrick Hoare said the idea was raised by the public during the town’s so-called health check, which was run by volunteers last year.

He said: “Clearly the Market Place is an issue on people’s minds and consequently a 20mph limit should be properly investigated, because there are different points of view.”

County councillors are expected to decide on Thursday whether to reduce the speed limit to 20mph in Oxford’s residential roads.

Ian Hudspeth, the council’s cabinet member for transport, said: “We want to evaluate the Oxford scheme first, to see what difference it makes and see if it gives us value for money, before we consider rolling it out in other areas.”