Last week a group of locals said children were particularly at risk from speeders responsible for mowing down five cats in about as many months at a point on the road known locally as the four cottages.

Now, a spokesman for residents living further along the road says the few young children in that area have to be "penned up" in their gardens for fear of drivers who routinely hurtle over the Diamond hill at breakneck speed.

Campaigners there, he said, have been trying for two years now to have a reduced speed limit introduced at McCandless Terrace, near Skeogh Orange Hall.

"It's a very dangerous part of the road," he said, "because they come flying out over the top of the Dimaond hill and someone is going to get killed; very possibly a child is going to get killed."

The local man explained that a lack of parking at the nearby Orange Hall meant that when it was in use, cars were parked along the roadside, so presenting motorists with a narrow passage that made speeding all the more potentially deadly.

"We approached (Lagan Valley MP) Jeffrey Donaldson about this about two years ago," he said. "We appreciate that progress on this sort of thing can be very slow and we know from the latest of the numerous letters that have gone back and forth that they are still pushing the issue, trying to get some sort of decision."

survey

Residents are aware that a traffic volume survey has been carried out on the road and insist there has been an increase since new houses were built in Waringsford.

But beyond that, they say, it only takes one car travelling at high speed to cost someone their life.