Cars are speeding through a village at up to 80mph, residents say.

People in Nonington now want average speed check cameras after five deaths along an eight-mile stretch in 20 months.

The campaigners says the accident blackspot is now statistically one of the most lethal stretches of rural road in Kent.

Their data shows more than 3,000 vehicles travel through Nonington every day and nearly two-thirds break the 30mph limit.

Speeds about 65mph are regularly recorded and once it was 80mph at 11.30pm.

Some of the speed merchants have been clocked during rush hour.

The residents met Dover MP Charlie Elphicke and their Kent county councillor Steve Manion, of the Dover North division, to discuss the problem.

They fear their village is being used as a rat run, including by large lorries and delivery vans directed by sat-navs.

"We are committed to reducing the ridiculous speeding through our village which is endangering the lives of residents and their children" - Andrew Tee

They says that the problem is made worse by the lack of footpaths, so that people often have to walk in the road, including at blind corners.

Nonington Parish Council chairman Andrew Tee said: “We are committed to reducing the ridiculous speeding through our village which is endangering the lives of residents and their children, and police enforcement is the only measure that will ensure compliance with the speed limit.

“With the demise of rural policing, this pioneering idea of putting average speed cameras into a rural community would ensure a safer environment for all.

“We are so glad to have Charlie Elphicke and Steve Manion support our cause.”

The meeting's organisers, villager Pauline Catterall, said: "I just would like vehicles to slow down through Nonington – and for people to respect our village."

A number of traffic calming options were discussed during the meeting at the village's Dolphin's Hall and the most popular idea was having average speed check cameras.

They would be located just after the Mill Lane entrance to Nonington and leaving the village at the end of Holt Street.

Other suggested included pinch points, eye-catching warning signs designed by children, greater traffic police presence and having a 20mph limit.

Mr Elphicke told residents that he would contact Kent Highways and Kent Police and urge then to look into the possibility of setting up cameras.

He has also asked for more traffic patrols in Nonington.

Three young people have died recently along the stretch of road between Woodnesborough and Adisham Road in Barham, which runs through Nonington.

But the specific causes of their crashes have still to be confirmed.

Casey Hood, 18, and Lucy Leadbeater, 27, were killed in a crash in Nethersole Road, Womenswold, on Friday, September 14.

Arry Petch, 18, died after a car travelling from Nonington towards Snowdown crashed in Holt Street on July 29.

The women's inquests are expected to be heard in full at the Archbishop's Palace in Maidstone on December 3.

In the case of Arry Petch two men were arrested and afterwards released without bail while enquiries continued.

Nongington residents have also set up a website with photographs of crashes and detailed traffic data to awareness of speeding through the village: nonington.traffic.nabob.co.uk/