A 40mph limit is expected to be approved on Weymouth’s Preston Beach Road between the entrance to Lodmoor Country Park and Overcombe Corner – despite a formal objection.

County councillors are being asked to approve the reduction from 50mph to 40mph. The slower limit was suggested after an increase in accidents, including two serious injury accidents and two fatalities.

County councillors at the regulatory committee tomorrow will consider the limit again after receiving a formal objection to the proposed order.

They are being told that the lower limit is in line with their own policies and Department of Transport guidelines, and should go ahead.

The new limit, which will cost £2,500 to implement, was first advertised for public consultation in March this year.

A letter of support was sent in from a woman whose husband died in 2015 after colliding with a motorcycle on the road – and one letter of objection from a resident of Bridge Inn Lane who claims there is no evidence to support the change and that the proposal appears “arbitrary.”

The section of road has been a 50mph zone since 1990. Over the last three years there were four collisions recorded, resulting in nine casualties. Two were fatal and five were classed as serious. Police recorded excess speed as a contributory factor in two of the crashes.

Traffic data puts the average speed on the section of road at 41mph which the county council is citing as evidence for formalising the new limit.