Drenched demonstrators bearing banners and dressed as Teletubbies marched on Haworth's precarious Brow Top Road/Hebden Road junction this week to protest against Bradford council's safety measures.

Wednesday's protest, carried out in pouring rain, was a reaction to the council's proposals to restrict cars to 30mph from further away from the junction as they approach it.

Haworth's road safety committee and residents' association, which recently merged, says the proposal is not enough.

Speaking on behalf of the road safety committee, member Rose Green-well says: "The road safety committee and Haworth residents' association are disappointed. This falls well short of what's required to make the junction safe.

"We also feel that Haworth has been left behind in the council's plans. Driving in and around Keighley and Bradford district there's no end of traffic calming measures and money spent on services and facilities. It's a joke - £5 million-plus spent on repairing the road (Hebden Road, close to the junction in question) and it's still going to be a hazard for pedestrians and motorists of Haworth."

Demonstrator Mary Metcalfe, who lives near the junction, says: "We have been petitioning for years to get something done here, such as traffic lights. Vehicles come down Brow Top Road so fast, they can't stop in time before they reach the junction. People are going to get killed here."

Both action groups want to see a gateway system in place at either end of the junction, in which the road is narrowed to slow drivers down.

A spokesman for the council's highways department says: "Proposals to extend the 30mph speed restrictions along Hebden Road towards Oxenhope and on Brow Top Road are part of an on-going consultation process with relevant agencies, including the emergency services and the local community.

"The proposed changes, and other schemes under consideration, were drawn up in response to residents' concerns about road safety in the area.

"During this consultation period people are welcome to contact Bradford council with any views they may have on the matter."

Haworth historian Arthur Walker, of Woodlands Rise, believes traffic lights are the only solution to the problem.

He says: "Bradford council must put traffic lights at this crossing. Vehicles travel at quite a considerable speed towards the junction and traffic lights are desperately needed there.

"The council just doesn't seem interested and appears not to care at all about this area."

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