More than 700 people have called on the council to introduce new speeding measures on Eastern Esplanade but the council is set to refuse after data on traffic speed failed to reflect the concerns.

A petition with 701 signatures was presented to the council in a bid to get new pedestrian crossings installed, as well as extra speed monitoring cameras.

It was backed by Independent Councillors Martin Terry and Ron Woodley, who both highlighted there are fears people are unable to cross the road safely.

But after an analysis of traffic movements along the seafront, council officers say proposals to make changes should be dropped as “the street is not considered appropriate for priority action based on data that has been obtained”.

The data collected over eight days in October 2018 shows the average speed of vehicles going along the stretch of road was 24 miles per hour and in the area outside Ocean Beach, just over 2 per cent were caught travelling faster than 30mph.

Outside Brewers Fayre, it was just 3.8 per cent that exceeded the speed limit.

A council report notes: “As the average vehicle speeds indicate the majority of vehicles are travelling under the speed limit and the collision history indicates that collisions have occurred but are generally caused by driver error, the street is not considered appropriate for priority action.”

The report, published ahead of a traffic working group meeting next week, recommends that no further action is taken.

Mr Woodley, who chairs the working group, said that the problem may lie with the number of vehicles which outside Ocean Beach were recorded at 159,295 over a eight-day period.

He said: “They have looked at the speed of the vehicles but when you consider vehicle movements are up to 159,000 outside Ocean Beach, it might not be a question of speed but the sheer number of vehicles and the number of people crossing the road to that part of the beach, which is usually very high.

“They also did this in October 2018, but we are in 2020 now people’s habits change over time and we have to take everything into consideration. It may be that we send it back for another look.”

Traffic Regulation Working Party and Cabinet Committee will take place on Monday night.