Central white lines could be left to wear away from Stroud’s roads to get drivers to slow down if a town council plan goes ahead.

Stroud Town Council’s road safety group has proposed asking Gloucestershire County Council to stop repainting dashed white lines in the middle of roads, citing evidence that doing so could reduce traffic speeds in and around the town by about 5 miles per hour.

The exception would be the A46 towards Painswick.

The group's logic is that, without the lines to fall back on, drivers will feel more uncertain of where they are in the road, in turn making them more alert to hazards.

“Increasing the perception of risk means drivers will actually have to pay attention,” explained town councillor Sarah Lunnon, who focused on road safety and highways during her eight year stint on the county council.

“We’d ask the county council to just not put the lines back when they fade - just them wear away, and that’s it.”

Cllr Lunnon is confident the county council will cooperate - the plans mean it would end up spending less cash on looking after Gloucestershire’s roads.

Stroud would not be the first place to try the strategy and, after running trials in the centre of the city and Croydon, Transport for London suggested there had been a “statistically significant reduction in vehicle speeds” as a result of removing central markings.

Town councillors considered the proposals at their annual meeting on May 14, and agreed to delegate the decision to a committee.