LACK of cash is hampering a councillor's efforts to help residents campaigning to improve safety in their road.

Ian James, who represents Weymouth's Westham East ward, is battling to get something done about traffic problems in the Newstead Road area.

He is backing a campaign by retired design draughtsman Brian Hutchings who said almost everyone in Newstead Road had signed his petition demanding action to put the brakes on speeding drivers before someone is killed.

Mr Hutchings said the threat from vehicles is so severe that pedestrians sometimes have to take evasive action by jumping into doorways but even buildings are being affected.

Buses and lorries have hit the Party Shop premises several times, cars have mounted pavements and demolished garden walls and angry residents are now demanding that traffic-calming measures be brought in and buses banned from the route. Mr James sympathises with their problem and said he had managed to achieve several things but his efforts were being hampered by lack of cash.

He said: "The roads are a county responsibility but I have asked Weymouth and Portland's engineering services manager Martyn Gallivan to look at trying to control vehicles speeds.

"I have also asked him to look at altering the Abbotsbury Road-Newstead Road traffic lights sequence to give pedestrians more time to cross the road. It will also increase the gap between lights changing which will help prevent some of the accidents caused by motorists trying to beat the lights.

"The county council has also agreed that the Newstead Road junction with Knightsdale Road is a problem and they are looking into it.

"We are campaigning to try and solve these traffic problems but, like so much else, there are budget issues. We need cash to improve the situation on these roads and cash is in short supply.

"If Dorset County Council provides match funding for the SUSTRANS bridge over Newstead Road there might be an opportunity for some of the Olympic transport package money to carry out improvements at the Newstead Road-Knightsdale Road junction at the same time. Lorries turning off Abbotsbury Road in to Newstead Road are a problem and the Party Shop has suffered some damage.

"There is a bollard on the corner of the junction to prevent this from happening but it is obviously not having the desired effect."

Mr James said he would be making inquiries to see if it was possible to introduce a restriction on heavy vehicles from turning left into Newstead Road. He also said that footway work was planned for Newstead Road and that Dorset County Council had agreed on an accident investigation study for the area.