NEW signs telling drivers to slow down when they pass through west York villages are set to be trialled in two areas, a city council report reveals.

Villagers in Poppleton, on Long Ridge Lane, and Rufforth are set to receive "vehicle-activated signs".

City of York Council is preparing a programme for trialling the signs as part of its village traffic studies scheme.

The signs would give the message "30 slow down" or similar wording when vehicles pass through.

David Webster, author of a report to York Council, the council's senior transportation and highways safety engineer, writes that "dependent upon the success of these trials, the programme may be rolled to other locations where there is a speeding problem".

In Rufforth, the scheme has already been approved by officers, but council workers want to look at the same scheme in Poppleton as a "possible alternative to physical traffic calming measures and to assess their effectiveness in a different environment to the situation in Rufforth".

Coun Ann Reid, pictured, the council's planning and transport chief, said: "These signs have been used in other areas.

"Residents feel they do help in slowing down vehicles. There are some people who simply don't realise what speed they are travelling at, so this is something we will be trying to see if it works."

Meanwhile, councillors have also been asked to consider plans to widen the footway on part of Station Road, in Poppleton.

The path, which links the village to the railway station, would be widened to 1.8 metres and has the support of the local parish council.

A plan to narrow the carriageway and extend the footway at Askham Fields Lane, near Main Street, Askham Bryan, was put to councillors last night.

The scheme aims to provide a continuous path which would link Askham Fields Lane with Main Street. The report recommends approving all the schemes, which would be paid for from the £380,000 village traffic study allocation.

Updated: 10:19 Friday, January 21, 2005