A bid by Ashby de la Zouch Town Council to introduce measures to improve traffic safety - at one of the town's most congested streets - has run into a dead end.

The council's planning committee raised the issue of excessive traffic using Avenue Road - which links Tamworth Road with Upper Packington Road - last October.

An approach was then made to Leicestershire County Council Highways to see if the department responsible for the county's roads could address the matter.

Residents had reported damage to parked vehicles due to cars using the road, sometimes at high speed, and they wanted action taken.

Former Ashby councillor, Barbara Kneale, also said that some vehicles were having to park up partly on the pavement, which causes problems for families taking children to Willesley Primary School.

However, after a number of exchanges between the two authorities, it seems as though nothing will be done.

The County Council believes that the amount of parked cars on Avenue Road acts as traffic calming - and that speeding issues should be a police matter.

A suggestion that a form of speed bump - pneumatic tubing - has also been rejected.

Monday's meeting of Ashby's planning committee was presented with correspondence that said 'There is no suitable location to undertake speed surveys on Avenue Road'.

It added that: 'In order to lay pneumatic tube, this will require installing the new lamp columns'.

In response to the request for traffic calming on the road, the County Council says: 'With the amount of vehicles parking on the street, traffic is required to stop or give way'.

It added: 'With a good accident record at this location, we would not consider there is evidence to show this to be an area of concern, and therefore there are no grounds for any safety improvement measures to be funded by the County Council at this time.

'Speed is a police matter, and we can only advise residents to redirect their concerns to them in this matter.'

Councillors at Monday's meeting said they would approach the County Council again.