A DECISION on traffic calming in Bristol Street, Malmesbury, is to be made within the next week.

A working group has spent the last three months deciding ways to improve safety on the road, which is notorious for blind bends and narrow pavements.

The group has put forward three options to either install traffic lights, speed bumps or to do nothing, all of which have been put to the vote.

Voting slips have been sent to residents living in and around the Bristol Street area. They were also available at a meeting to discuss the street's problems in the town hall last night.

More slips will be available at another meeting today at 2pm in the town hall. Details of the schemes will be on display outside the Hobbes room in the town hall.

Next Wednesday, the working group will meet to discuss the result of the survey and decide on a proposal to be presented to Wiltshire County Council.

The first option would see three sets of traffic lights placed at the junction of Foxley Road and Bristol Street.

The system would work with two sets of traffic lights on Bristol Street controlling traffic flow in each direction, and a third set on Foxley Road that would control traffic travelling into town.

The scheme would include pavement widening in Bristol Street on a section of road approximately 100m from pedestrian crossings.

The traffic lights would use a special system to manage traffic flow.

A recent traffic survey conducted over a 12-hour period suggests that a maximum of four or five cars would be queuing at the lights in Bristol Street at any one time.

The other option is to put in speed bumps at regular intervals along the road and reduce the speed limit to 20mph.

The county council already has a £45,000 to £50,000 budget for the project.

The traffic lights scheme would fall within that expenditure, but extra cash would have to be found to install the speed bumps which it is estimated could cost in the region of £55,000.

Jane Brooks who is part of the working group and lives on Bristol Street said: "Since our first meeting we have tried to narrow it down to the three most feasible options.

"It has been a complex process and we have tried to consider everybody's point of view."