A CAMPAIGN by residents to extend traffic safety measures in their town looks likely to be a success.

North Yorkshire County Council announced plans earlier this year to create a 20mph zone with a mixture of speed tables and cushions in the centre of Colburn.

But residents said the scheme should be extended to cover 400m of Colburn Lane.

They said it would improve safety around the corner shop and the junction where a nine-year-old boy was hit by a car and seriously injured in September.

A petition with 173 signatures was sent to the county council and officers have now agreed that the extra 400m of Colburn Lane should be included in the next phase of work.

Resident and campaigner Sylvia Allerston said it was great news for the town.

"It is extremely important that this area has a 20mph limit because it's where the corner shop is. All the children in Colburn go there with money in their pockets," she said:

"It is nice to know that when residents voice opinions like this, it is listened to."

The plans will go before the council's Richmondshire area committee at a meeting in West Burton Village Hall, next Monday.

In a report to the committee, Mike Moore, corporate director of environmental services, said: "With respect to the request for the extension of the 20mph zone along Colburn Lane, to the north of the area currently under review, it was always intended that this would be addressed, but currently it is programmed as phase five of the project.

"This would place the actual introduction of measures at this location some years away.

"In view of the good deal of local concern about the situation in Colburn Lane, and in view of the recent accident, it is proposed that the phase of the project which includes this area should be brought forward to form the next element of work.

"It would be intended that design and consultation work of this phase would therefore commence at the earliest opportunity, with a view to implementation of the scheme during the early part of the next financial year."