WORRIED residents fear someone will be seriously injured unless action is taken to prevent their village near Winchester being used as a rat run by motorists.

They claim many drivers on the M3 are now using Easton as an alternative route to avoid the congestion that frequently occurs at junction 9 during busy periods.

But the road through the village has no pavements and the additional traffic is creating hazards for local people, particularly young mums with children.

Chairman of Itchen Valley Parish Council, Alison Matthews, said villagers fear the traffic problem will get worse when a proposed new science park is built at nearby Morn Hill.

But she is hopeful that under a scheme introduced by Hampshire County Council last year, traffic calming measures may be introduced before development takes place.

At one time the county council only gave consideration to traffic calming schemes in villages after someone had suffered a personal injury.

But under the new system villages can request traffic calming measures if they are willing to share some of the costs involved.

"We have had a public meeting and local people have agreed they want to go ahead with a scheme," said Mrs Matthews. "The main difficulty in Easton is that there are no pavements, but we do have a lot of families with children.

"There is a lot of traffic using the village now during rush hours and there is this perception it is being used as a rat run because of junction 9.

"We are talking to the county council tomorrow about the scheme. We will probably have to wait months before anything is done, but we would have stood no chance to get calming measures without this new scheme," she added.

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