A campaign has been launched for a stretch of road in Coltishall which it is claimed has been the scene of numerous accidents to be included on the gritting route.

Coltishall Parish Council are urging people to join their campaign, for the Great Hautbois to Badersfield Road which leads to the new village of Badersfield and HMP Bure, based on the old RAF Coltishall site, to be included on Norfolk County Council's current gritting schedule.

Petition forms have been placed in Coltishall Post Office and Mace Stores , Londis Stores, The One Stop Island Filling Station and A Piece-of-Cake Tea Rooms in the village, as well as in the local shop at Badersfield.

John Harding, chair of the parish council, said: 'The road has been bad, in the last two weeks I have heard of around four or five accidents which have happened along there. The road used to be gritted, but the trouble is when RAF Coltishall closed down, the road was no longer classed as a major route.'

He said the parish council had written to the county council earlier this year asking for the road to be included in the gritting schedule, but were told that would not be possible.

In a letter sent back to the parish council Graham Plant, cabinet member for travel and transport, said there was already a treated route to the prison, through the village of Buxton with Lamas along the B1150.

He added: 'The winter services routes are part of an agreed policy which is publicised widely at the beginning of the winter season.

'Unfortunately, while I appreciate local concerns, there is not the scope to add additional routes for routes that drivers may choose to use in favour of the publicised routes.'

John Birchall, from the county council's planning and transportation department, added: 'We do not have much spare capacity, we are using the gritters to the limit already, it is difficult to add on extra mileage, and you run the risk of then not treating a higher risk route.'

He added that they do look at all requests for particular roads to be gritted each summer, and evaluate if they should be taken on board.

He said: 'If there are particular trouble spots off the priority network, parish councils can buy grit bins and the county council will supply road salt.'

People can email their thoughts about the road gritting campaign to coltpc_grittingpetition@coltishall.org.uk.