A woman who once threatened to step in front of a car to highlight the problem with speed in the centre of Helston has started a campaign to claim back the town's roads for residents.

Tracy Orchard, who lives near the top of Meneage Street with her ten-year-old daughter, said drivers only appeared to think about where they had to get to and not of the pedestrians around them.

She visited Helston Town Council on Thursday, pleading for some form of pedestrian crossing or way to slow down the traffic.

She said: "I've had my door ripped off by a driver driving too fast - they blamed it on me opening my car door into their vehicle. Other residents have had wing mirrors ripped off.

"The road is not there for the public. The road is there for the people that pay the council taxes and every resident that lives on there.

"You have got young children trying to cross the road by Bubbles [Laundrette] and not one car has slowed down. I have to stop the traffic - and I often do - to let these children cross the road. People are not looking where they are going.

"My daughter goes to Nansloe and everyone I speak to on that road is noticing it's getting too much - enough is enough."

Tracy said she also saw a lot of elderly people trying to cross the road to the Meneage Surgery, adding: "Drivers are not kind to them. They're not focussed on what the road is about.

"No one is respecting the fact it's a residential area."

She begged councillors: "Please look into a pelican crossing or zebra crossing; let's weave parking spaces all across that road, so cars have to slow down."

Tracy said once she had even appeared from between parked cars, as if she was about to step out into the road, just to see if the driver would notice her and be able to stop.

"I could hear a car coming down from Spar, just before six in the evening. I could hear it hammering down. I thought, 'I'm going to step close to this vehicle'. As it approached me I stepped out between the vehicles where they parked - I couldn't step further, because I would have lost my life," she told the council.

"It's old people too, but it happened to be a young lad driving. He could not acknowledge anything further than he was going forward and the speed he was going. No one is acknowledging that it's a residential area, enough to make us feel happy living on that street.

"Keep the residents a priority first."

Councillors backed her sentiments, with mayor John Martin agreeing: "We should make pedestrians the priority - that is the aim.

"Cormac are very concerned themselves. We will endeavour to act as fast as we can, and I mean that from the heart."

However, he said what happened in one part of town effected another part and it had to be part of a wider picture.

Councillor Tim Grattan-Kane said: "The problem with Meneage Street is it's narrow and speed often seems greater than it is.

"I know, giving the width of certain pavements, the opportunities for traffic islands and pedestrian crossings are somewhat limited.

"We are still working hard with officers at Cornwall Council to make sure something happens."

Tracy questioned whether further up the road by the laundrette would be wide enough, however.

Councillor Dave Potter, who is chairman of the Helston Climate Action Group, said one of the issues members were looking at was speed and volume of traffic in residential areas, adding: "What we want to do is give our streets back to 'people'."

He said they wanted to put drivers off from going through the town and "using it as a rat run."