CALLS have been made to cap the A338 speed limit to 50mph following fatal road crashes.

The Mayors of Ringwood and Fordingbridge, Cllrs Michael Thierry and Malcolm Connolly, want Hampshire County Council to approve plans to combat collisions and improve safety, which they will present at Ringwood's planning, town and environment meeting on Friday.

They want a 'round-the-table' meeting with Highways officials after forming a partnership to tackle the problem.

Cllr Connolly said: "The A338 is what we would class as a dangerous road and a lot of that is created by the speed.

"At Downton we successfully lobbied for it to be lowered to 50mph and there has been a noticeable reduction of accidents on that stretch."

His plan is to lower the speed limit of the entire road from Salisbury to Ringwood to 50mph, with suggested lower limits where the road passes through villages such as Ellingham and Ibsley.

"We feel we need to protect drivers and put on adequate speed restrictions," he added. "We're very serious about this. Our other thoughts are that it does cost the emergency services a lot of money."

Backing Cllr Connolly's calls for road safety, Cllr Thierry said that, by working together, the combined councils will have a greater impact on Hampshire County Council.

ADVERTISING inRead invented by Teads "Town and parish councils do need to look at how we can better work together," he said. "We will be asking the county council to look at all aspects and determine how to make improvements. What we're asking is to focus the attention on road users that this is a dangerous road so they can be aware of some of the potential issues."

On Good Friday, Ken Spreadbury, 63, from Fordingbridge died when his 1000cc Yamaha YZF-R1 was involved in a head-on collision with a red Ford Fiesta at Charlton All Saints, between Salisbury and Downton.

A 75-year-old man also died following a three-vehicle crash, on June 1, that saw the road closed in both directions for several hours.

It is believed the South Walian died as a result of a medical episode when he was found behind the wheel of a Citroen Xsara suffering from cardiac arrest.

No one else was seriously injured in the collision, which saw two air ambulances dispatched to the scene, just outside Ringwood, at 3.20pm.