MORE than 1,000 people have now signed their names to a Daily Echo-backed campaign to ease noise pollution for residents living near the M3 motorway south of Winchester.

The Bin the Din Campaign was launched two years ago in a bid to force government transport chiefs to re-lay the road surface on the busy commuter route and cut noise levels.

Hundreds of people from some of the worst affected villages lying next to the six-lane highway have signed a petition urging the government to take action on the road.

Campaigners, including Winchester city councillor Charlotte Bailey, will now be heading off to London on Wednesday to hand in the petition to two government departments.

The campaigners will visit the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in a bid to get their point over noise pollution across.

"More than 1,000 local people signed the petition, which shows the great concern there is about M3 noise," said Cllr Bailey.

"Local people should not have to put up with the stress of excessive noise 24 hours a day when the impact can be halved by giving us a quiet road surface."

The problems stem from the road surface on the M3.

When the road was opened in 1994, residents living in villages near the road complained that the din was blighting their lives.

However, though road bosses have agreed that the next time the road is resurfaced it will be covered in a special noise-reducing surface, this could be up to a decade away.

Now the anti-noise group will be handing their petition in to both departments in an effort to get the government departments to act together.

The DfES has been targeted because of the effect the noise levels are having on children from the Shepherds Down Special School in Compton.

A recent Ofsted report gave the school glowing praise for its work, but said that for things to improve further, one of the issues that needed addressing was the excessive noise from the motorway.

Cllr Bailey, who represents Otterbourne and Shawford, said: "We are hoping that one thing that will help our cause is the many schools along the road, and we want to see some joined-up thinking by the government on this.

"On the one hand the DfES is saying that children can't learn properly with excessive levels of noise in their schools, and on the other the DfT is saying that that is not one of the criteria they use to decide whether a road should be resurfaced.

"But if their reasoning was joined up, areas like Compton, Shawford and Otter-bourne might move higher up the priority list because of the effect the noise is having on the schoolchildren."

Winchester MP Mark Oaten said: "The government needs to sit up and take note. One thousand local people have signed this petition.

"All they are asking for is to not be disturbed day and night by deafening traffic noise. It's not too much to ask for. Local people want action. I want action. Now the government has to deliver."