SPEED limits outside Bridport schools should be cut to 20mph, town councillors believe.

And they are also pushing for a 30mph limit along Burton Road, where the new waste site is planned.

Their views will be passed on to the county council which has produced the new five-year local transport plan.

Initiatives include reducing vehicle speed, providing cycle and pedestrian links and an improved bus service.

The plan will be reviewed next summer after a series of public consultation meetings in February and March, including one in Bridport.

At a meeting of the town council's finance and general purposes committee, Coun Phil Lathey said there was a 'definite need' for 20mph zones outside town schools.

"They had a speed check at St Mary's a few weeks ago and a large number of mothers were doing over 30mph," he said.

"I can show people pictures of what can be done to people at 20mph, let alone 30."

Town surveyor, Bernard Paull, said he had been told that requests to the county council for a reduction in the speed limit must come from the schools themselves.

But he had informed each of Bridport's schools and indicated that the town council would be supportive of such a request.

Mayor Sandra Brown said she was also concerned about Burton Road, where she had been asking for a 30mph limit.

Coun Charles Wild said waste company SITA had suggested that the 30mph limit should be extended to Marsh Barn. "But they have been told that this is not possible," he said.

Coun Humphrey Dibdin suggested that the reason for this could be that 40mph was probably the practical recorded speed.

"They don't see the point in reducing the speed because people ignore it," he said.

Mr Paull said: "I can remember the same arguments for Winterbourne Abbas when there was a 40mph limit and now it's 30mph."

Coun Wild said: "This is one of the things that people are most worried about in Burton Road."