MORE than 67 per cent of motorists on Burnham's Marine Drive are breaking the speed limit, new figures from Somerset County Council revealed.

The County Council placed Speed Indicator Devices along the 30mph Marine Drive in Burnham for two weeks from July 21 through to August 3 and clocked the speeds of 24,584 vehicles.

Of that number, 15,669, or a staggering 68 per cent, were found to have gone over 30mph.

The figures also show that 969 of these speeding drivers were driving over 40mph and 96 were driving at more than 50mph.

Only 7,850 of those clocked along Marine Drive were actually found to be driving under 30mph.

Cllr Phil Harvey said that he wasn't too shocked by the report, but said it may be worth looking into ways to slow the traffic down.

"I must say I wasn't totally surprised by the figures," Cllr Harvey said. "Of all the roads in Burnham it is one of the widest and has few access roads, so there is an opportunity for speeding," Cllr Harvey said.

"The issue of speeding on Marine Drive is something that has been discussed for many years. I don't think it is necessary to have speeding policeman as it is the main access road from Burnham to Highbridge and of course there is the fire station based at the end.

"One thing that could be considered is to put in the occasional chicane - I don't know whether the traffic flow would be too high for that too work you would have to ask a Highways Officer.

"If not then a permanent speed camera for both directions could be looked into. It would hit people in the pockets, but of course all these ideas are open to debate," Cllr Harvey said.

The work was carried out by the County Council at the behest of Burnham and Highbridge Town Council, and will now be passed on to the police.

A similar study was also carried at Berrow Road which measured the speeds of 47,081, with 12,987 found to travelling between 30-40mph, 529 at between 40-50mph and 64 speeding at over 50mph.