CHILDREN'S lives are being put at risk by drivers speeding past schools, say campaigners.

Cars have been regularly clocked going over the 30mph speed limit along Wingfield Road, despite there being three schools, a care home and a doctors surgery along the route, which is within walking distance of the town centre.

Campaigner Mark Large, 38, has children at St John's Catholic Primary School and St Augustine's Catholic College.

He said: "There are so many children who walk along there. I want to get the roads made a priority. I don't want an accident to happen and for that to be the reason something is done, it need to be before that happens."

Kim Parnell, headteacher at St John's Catholic Primary School, is backing the campaign for more speed restrictions outside the school. She said: "We are in 100 per cent support of anything that is done to stop people speeding.

"People go down the road far too fast and the problem is made worse by illegal parking along double yellow lines." Mrs Parnell made sure all the children at the school completed a road safety course in the summer, to make them more aware of the dangers of traffic.

Another road causing concern for residents in Trowbridge is Wiltshire Drive, which is regularly used as a rat-run by boy racers using it to cut through from Bradley Road towards the town centre.

Anthony Barber and his wife Valerie have lived in Bader Close, on the corner of Wiltshire Drive, for 30 years.

Mr Barber, 57, said: "Traffic goes whizzing down there. Wiltshire Drive was built back in the 70s as a main through road and it is much wider than most 30mph roads. Times have changed but it has become a rat-run.

"Something should be done but I suppose it all comes down to money.

"It just feels as though you have to wait for an accident to happen before something is done."