COUNCILLORS in Pewsey are fighting the battle of the bulge and it has nothing to do with expanding waistlines.

The bulge in question is an artificial chicane that highways engineers have placed outside the village cemetery.

The engineers have narrowed Wilcot Road to discourage vehicles from speeding as they leave the village.

The bump marks the beginning of the Quiet Lanes zone, the Pewsey Vale scheme aimed at encouraging vehicles to slow down and make way for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.

The bulge partially blocks access to the lane to Sharcott.

Members of the parish council said they were concerned that vehicles wanting to turn into Sharcott were forced on to the offside of the road by the bulge.

Parish council chairman Alex Carder said: "This council supports the initiative of the quiet lanes project but not the way some of the work has been carried out ."

Coun Carder said that money for the quiet lanes came from a different budget to road repairs but it was difficult to explain this to members of the public asking why there was no money to fill potholes in roads and pavements.

Two representatives from the county council-backed quiet lanes scheme had been invited to the parish council meeting in Pewsey last Tuesday but failed to turn up.

Council vice chairman Phil Stevens spent an hour meeting officials from the project on site at the bulge and the outcome was agreement on moving the large oak quiet lanes sign just a few inches.

Coun Stevens said: "We accept there had to be a post at the start of the quiet lanes and we would not have disagreed with a small build-out into the road."

Coun Bert Shorter said that, as the county council's own statistics showed there had been no accidents over the last seven years, he could see no need for any bulge on the Wilcot Road.

He said the quiet lanes sign could have been sited two metres back towards Pewsey or two metres towards Wilcot when no bulge would have been required.

There was general assent when Coun Terry Eyles said: "This thing is a monstrosity and should be taken away and the road put back as it was."

Councillors were told that the cost of removing the bulge could be as much as £7,000 because when the bulge was made the asphalt road surface had been excavated.

The council agreed to press for the road to be reinstated with just a small build-out to carry the quiet lanes post.