CAR drivers racing into Congleton are due to have their speed cut by a new so-called 'buffer zone.

The 40 miles an hour limit is earmarked for Reades Lane for a 1,000-metre stretch from the end of the 30mph zone.

Highway officers couldn't recommend the extension of the 30mph limit as far as the Coach and Horses pub as traffic speed was too high when judged against national criteria.

However officers looked at the possibility of introducing a 40mph limit, which would act as a buffer zone to the existing 30mph limit when approaching from the Coach and Horses direction.

Highway officers are recommending a 1,000 metre 40 miles an hour zone, from the end of the 30mph limit to a point beyond the junction with Rough Bank.

Borough officer Nigel Curtis said the road was rural in character on the approach to Congleton from the borough boundary, with no footpaths.

A long, straight downhill stretch passed the road junction by the Coach and Horses, he said and the road changed to a series of tortuous bends on the approach to a bridge.

Surveys taken at four points on the stretch between the end of the 30mph limit and the borough boundary showed most drivers travelling at 47, 45, 41 and 39 miles an hour, the last three fitting the criteria for a 40mph limit.