PLANS to install a £40,000 traffic-calming scheme at Marchwood have won approval from the parish council.

The scheme aims to reduce the speed of traffic using Main Road between its junctions with Old Magazine Close and St John's Court.

Parish councillors were told by by district council engineer Roger Hand of the measures that will be taken to make Marchwood safer.

He said bollards would be installed at the junction of Main Road and Old Magazine Close to form a structure known as a splitter island.

"It will encourage traffic coming into the village to keep to the outside of the bend and not cut the corner," he said.

Crossing points known as build-outs will be placed at three locations on Main Road between its junctions with Reed Drive and Wood Glade Close. They will be similar to a new crossing outside St Andrew's Church, Beaulieu Road, Dibden Purlieu.

The scheme will also include a chicane between the entrance to Marchwood Junior School and The Hawthorns.

Drivers will have to negotiate bollards at each end of the chicane. Parish councillor Alan Shotter said he hoped that further traffic calming measures would be implemented in the village in the next few years.

"Hopefully it'll be like the Lord Of The Rings films and we will get something for the next three Christmases," he said.