MEASURES to tackle vehicles speeding down Tunnel Hill and into Upton are to be investigated by the town council.

At a meeting on Tuesday, it was agreed that action must be taken to protect residents.

Suggestions included lowering the speed limit on the A4104 into Old Street to 30mph, putting in crossings and installing chicanes - road islands that give one side of traffic priority.

Coun Tim Perry said: "The problem is we're one of the few villages in the whole area that's very, very narrow as you come into it. Something needs to be done."

The ideas met with a mixed response in the town.

Heidi Riley, who works in The Flower Ring, on Old Street, said she would welcome traffic calming.

"My parents live at the top of Tunnel Hill and the cars just thunder past both ways. They get speed up coming up the hill and going down," she said.

"I think it's really dangerous. Something definitely needs doing. Everybody moans and groans about it, but nothing seems to happen."

However, Alan Teale, manager of Ironing Direct, on Old Street, said he felt it was the volume of traffic, not the speed, that was the problem.

"The problem is that there's so much of it and the road's so narrow," he said.

"At the end of the day, you can stop the cars speeding with traffic calming, but with the volume coming in, personally, I think all it will do is gridlock the town."

Mayor Mark Kerrigan said he would write to Worcestershire County Council and liaise with local county councillor Bob Bullock about taking the suggestions forward.