Shirehall highway bosses are calling for the national speed limit to be cut to 50 mph on some country roads to help reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in accidents.

A report to the Shropshire Council cabinet next week welcomes a Department of Transport consultation paper which sets out proposals aimed at making Britain’s roads the safest in the world.

Figures reveal that Shropshire is ahead of national targets for reducing casualties but the report says more needs to be done to improve road safety.

The call for the speed limit reduction is one of the proposed responses from council officers to the paper and for which they are seeking approval from cabinet on Wednesday.

The report says that good progress has been made in reducing road casualties over the last decade.

In 2007 the number of people killed or seriously injured on British roads had dropped by 36 per cent from the 1994 to 1998 average . A 40 per cent target is expect-ed to achieved by 2010.

Last year, Shropshire’s KSIs dropped to an all-time low and was more than 60 per cent lower than the 1994 to 1998 average.

The report says that 60 per cent of all road deaths occur on rural routes. The Department of Transport plans to publish maps highlighting the roads with the poorest safety records, to encourage agencies to improve safety standards.

Local authorities will be encouraged to reduce speed limits on the more dangerous rural roads from the current 60mph. The 90 per cent chance of a driver dying in a 60mph head-on collision is reduced to 65 per cent at 50mph.

This, the report says, is welcomed and in line from Shropshire’s agreed policy on rural A and B roads.

“However, from a Shropshire perspective a more practical approach would be for the national speed limit on single carriageway roads to be reduced to 50mph with those roads suitable for a 60mph limit being signed by exception,” says the report.