PARISH councillors in Porlock have dropped plans to buy a £2,500 device to encourage drivers to slow down after hearing most motorists were already complying with village speed limits.

The council was going to buy a speed indicator device (SID) which would be used on local roads to display how fast a vehicle was travelling as it approached.

The data could also be passed to police to identify areas which needed to be targetted with speed camera traps.

But a working group led by Cllr Stephen Colson was told by Somerset Council that four of the six locations where the SID was intended to be used did not meet safety requirements.

The two remaining locations in Redway and High Street did not have standard posts on which to fix a SID and would need to be modified.

Cllr Colson said: “In addition, available data does not support the need, and given the reduction in desired locations the cost benefit is no longer justifiable.”

He said the project would now be closed and the remaining committed funds would be released to help other Porlock projects.

Earlier in the year councillors heard how drivers in Porlock could be among the best behaved and safest motorists in the country after the working group reported average vehicle speeds monitored in nearly 20 different stretches of road were all below their 20 mph and 30 mph limits.

The finding resulted in Avon and Somerset Police withdrawing an offer to help pay for the parish council’s SID.

Cllr Colson said SIDs had been shown to be effective 90 per cent of the time in reminding drivers to slow down and they also meant there was less need for community speed watch groups.

Police had also said the main issues for them with road traffic accidents and offences were alcohol, drugs, and age.