ACTION could be taken amid mounting concerns over the increasing numbers of roadside memorials at the scene of fatal accidents.

Fears have been expressed that the memorials could present a road safety risk by distracting drivers and taking their eyes off the road.

The issue was originally raised by Wensleydale county councillor John Blackie who said he fully understood the needs of some relatives to mark the spot where their loved ones had died.

But he pointed out that fatal accidents often happened at dangerous parts of the roads - just where drivers needed to concentrate.

Now councillors in North Yorkshire are being asked to support moves to control such memorials in a compassionate way.

In many instances flowers are left near the crash sites by relatives and friends of the victims.

They are removed by county council staff only when they have withered and died and that practice is likely to remain unchanged. But in the past the council has received requests for permanent memorials to be installed on the verge.

Those requests have always been turned down on the grounds that they would cause an obstruction and council officers believe that is still the right thing to do.

But they have now suggested an alternative would be for a small discreet permanent memorial to be placed, with the permission of the landowner, on a fence or stonewall at the accident site.

They are also discussing with church authorities whether a permanent memorial could be installed in Ripon Cathedral - where an annual service is held to remember those killed on the county's roads.

The county's director of environmental services, Mike Moore, said: "This is a sensitive issue which needs to be dealt with sympathetically."

If the formal protocol is adopted by county councillors then guidance will be taken, in conjunction with planning authorities, on the size of the wall-mounted plaques.