PEOPLE living in Portbury village have welcomed more road safety measures near their homes, to warn motorists of potential hazards.

Residents and Portbury Parish Council have been campaigning for years for help to reduce the number of accidents in Portbury Lane.

As a result, in 2010 North Somerset Council introduced vehicle-activated bend warning signs near Racecourse Farm, where several accidents had occurred.

Councillor Nigel Ashton, the leader of North Somerset Council, said: “In addition to the injury accident details that the police send to us, we are grateful to Portbury Parish Council which has also been passing on details of other incidents along the lane.

“There have been a significant number of accidents around the Failand Lane junction, close to Portbury village, and so we have now put up a temporary road sign at each end of the affected length of the lane, to warn drivers of the high incidence of collisions.”

Portbury Lane, which runs between Portbury and B3128 Clevedon Road near to the entrance to Tyntesfield House, is a popular commuter route between junction 19 of the M5 and Nailsea.

As part of the road safety measures North Somerset Council is also preparing to install additional signs and new road markings for the Failand Lane junction and on some of the bends. The road markings cannot be done until weather conditions are more suitable.

Parish council vice chairman Peter Cooke said: “The parish council is very pleased that we have managed to get three agencies working together to produce a plan that is acceptable to all and one that should improve safety on this stretch of road.”

The temporary signs recently installed cost about �600. The permanent signs and road markings will cost a further �2,400 and work is expected to start in February.

Residents also say they hope that improved signage indicating the way to Portbury Dock, which will be introduced as part of the junction 19 upgrade, will reduce the instances of articulated vehicles entering Portbury by mistake.