A COMMUNITY group is hoping to raise the profile of a village in order to help ease growing concerns over traffic in the area.

The Little Totham Community Traffic Watch group has only recently been set up and held its first meeting at the Swan Pub, Church Road, on Saturday, September 23.

The group is made up of a coalition of residents and parish councillors who are working together in a bid to prevent drivers from speeding through the village.

The chairman of the Little Totham Parish Council, Richard Siddall, is a key member of the group and he is desperate to get the attention of Maldon District Councillors and local MP, Priti Patel.

He said: "I have written to Priti Patel three times now and heard nothing back.

"We have a lot of problems with speeding.

"It's a combination of speeding cars and heavy goods vehicles going through to the business park at Tolleshunt Major.

"In rush hour, there is a lorry passing through every three minutes which is an awful lot for a small village.

"We are getting school pupils to write letters to the district council.

"We are also opening up dialogues with businesses in the area. No one has ever done that before but its important to be in contact about our concerns."

A report on the traffic issue in Little Totham was submitted to Maldon District Council in August.

The Community Traffic Watch Group is now preparing to hand over a new version which will include fresh evidence of the problems collated from traffic surveys.

Essex Police are also expected to conduct their own speed checks in the coming weeks.

Mr Siddall added: "We need to raise the profile of the village before something will be done.

"There are some natural pinch points but people are driving at 35mph when its a 30mph speed limit.

"There are no pavements for children to walk on either so traffic calming measures are needed.

"If we were to get lorries on different routes, we think it would alleviate problems at Witham on the A12 as well."