PLANS for radical traffic calming measures in Bewdley have been temporarily shelved after an outcry by townsfolk.

Worcestershire County Council now plans to work in partnership with residents over proposals for 20mph speed restrictions in dozens of streets off Cleobury Road by installing humps and bumps.

Park Lane residents' group leader Mike Hardiman said about 150 people turned up at a public meeting at St George's Hall on Monday - and the "overwhelming majority" were against the scheme.

It involves the council applying for £230,000 of Government funding to make it safer for pupils of St Anne's first and middle schools to walk to school.

Mr Hardiman said: "It was an intrusive project for which there was very, very little in the way of hard objective information to justify it.

"We have no sympathy for speeding drivers but fear this scheme would deter visitors to Bewdley. The strength of the town is its visitors - and it has not yet fully recovered from the effects of the floods."

He emphasised the feeling of residents was that there are better ways to reduce speeding - for example by installing cameras - without "wholesale disruption".

Project manager Richard Attwood said all the alternatives would be considered by a working group set up to "work towards an amicable solution".

No decisions have been made about the composition of the group, although it will include members of Bewdley Town Council.

"The existing plans were not acceptable in totality," Mr Attwood added.