Calls are being made to put the speed limit on a busy country road back down to 30mph before someone is killed.

Wiltshire Council imposed a 30mph limit in Horton Road on the outskirts of Devizes when new houses were being built at the former Bureau West site off Horton Road last year.

But after the houses were completed earlier this year the speed limit went up to 50mph.

Now residents in Wellington Drive, Marlborough Close and the new development built by Redrow, have started a petition calling for the speed limit to go back to 30mph.

Sarah Brogden, a mother-of-two in Wellington Drive and spokesman for the campaign, said: “When the 30mph limit was put in place it worked. There was little or no overtaking along Horton Road and, for the most part, drivers kept to the speed limit.

“The 50mph limit is totally unsafe and unsuitable. The speed at which vehicles travel along the road is frightening. Three cats have been run over in recent months, the latest being a cat from Wellington Drive on September 1. “We fear there will be a fatal accident involving a child.”

She also said motorists were cutting through Bishops Cannings and using Horton Road to avoid queues on the A361 coming into Devizes Chris Waring, of Wellington Drive, whose cat Monty was the latest to be killed, said: “If the current speed limit of 50mph remains on the Horton Road this kind of loss could and will happen to many more of us at any time. “Almost certainly it will be a human life at stake next. Please kill this speed limit, not our kids and animals.”

This week in another twist Wiltshire Council told residents it is proposing to turn off and dim most of the new street lights installed in Horton Road to serve the 118-home Redrow estate following a complaint.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Council said: “The 30mph signs were authorised as a temporary measure for the construction phase of the new housing estate to take into account the number of construction vehicles entering in and out of the site. It was never the intention at that time to make it a permanent 30mph road.”

The spokesman said Devizes Area Board had already identified Horton Road to be the subject of a speed limit review and the council is collecting data and evidence and will make a recommendation about the speed limit early next year, following which there would be public consultation.

The spokesman added: “No decision has been taken in regard of the street lights. We received a complaint from a resident that the new street lights were unnecessary and intrusive. Before making any decision on whether the lights could be dimmed or partially switched off at night we are contacting all residents so we get as many views as possible.”

The 30mph petition is on Wiltshire Council’s website while there is also a Facebook page called Horton Road 30. A paper petition is also circulating in the area.