WORRIED residents fear an accident is waiting to happen on a road notorious for speeding traffic.

St Peter's residents believe that drivers are using St Peter's Drive, Worcester as a rat run to avoid the southern link road.

Roy Sheppard, of St Peter's Drive, said cars frequently speed through at 50 or 60mph.

"It's by the grace of God that an accident has not happened yet," said the 53-year-old.

Mother-of-two Claire Hemming says that taking her children to school is a dangerous ordeal and fears that a serious accident will happen before action is taken.

"It's a nightmare trying to cross the road," she said.

"You just can't judge how fast the traffic is going."

The 30-year-old, of Batsford Road, would like to see the introduction of speed cameras to tackle the problem.

A spokeswoman for the Safety Camera Partnership said that since January, 2002 there had been three collisions on the road in which people had been injured, although none of these resulted in serious injuries or deaths.

"For us to have a fixed camera on the site, there needs to be four collisions in three years, which involve someone being killed or seriously injured," she said.

A grandmother, 65-year-old Judy Lawrence, of Broomhall Green, said: "It's very dangerous and I'm surprised that there hasn't been an accident along here already.

City councillor for the St Peter's ward, Roger Knight said it was a major problem in terms of road safety and noise.

"I think an accident is almost inevitable," he said.

"More than 80,000 vehicles use the road each week, although it is a small minority who cause the problems, said Coun Knight."

He added that the residents did not want to see things like chicanes or speed bumps because these would only add to the disturbance.

Worcestershire County Council is sometimes able to use some other methods of traffic calming methods along the roads, such as building speed bumps.

Methods to tackle bad behaviour are working

TOUGH new measures to stamp out anti-social behaviour in a city parish have been warmly welcomed by its residents.

A Section 30 order, imposed on Abbotsbury Court in St Peter's has been in effect for about three weeks and residents are starting to see an improvement.

The order has given the police additional powers to disperse groups of loitering troublemakers.

It came after a series of incidents in the shopping area, which culminated in a car and shop window being damaged.

Stuart Baker, of Sandpiper Close said that life seemed much more peaceful now.

"It was quite intimidating for families, but is much better at night, said Mr Baker.

Mother-of-two, Claire Hemming is thrilled with the change.

"It's definitely improved things and has stopped the kids hanging around," said the 30-year-old, who lives in Batsford Road.

"There seems to be less trouble now."

The order, under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, will allow officers to request any group of two or more causing intimidation, alarm, harassment or distress to leave an area for up to 24 hours.

Between 9pm and 6am, children under 16, unless accompanied by a responsible adult, can also be escorted home.

Some residents feel that the measures have just shifted the problem to other areas of the city.

Cynthia Davis, of Bath Road, said: "All they do now is congregate further along the other alleyways.

"More should be done to get the kids off the streets," added the 40-year-old mother-of-two.

The order was first used in the Lyppards and also in the surrounding Anchor-age Green area of Warndon in January 2004 with great effect.

Incidents of anti-social behaviour dropped dramatically and the majority of culprits improved their behaviour or they avoided being in the area.