BAFFLED residents have rubbished plans to relieve congestion on a road that they say has no traffic problems.

Residents Against Traffic Stupidity, a group formed 18 months ago by residents of Marlow Road and Desborough Avenue, High Wycombe, after Buckinghamshire County Council proposed plans for a bus lane, have regrouped in light of more traffic calming plans.

Pensioner Patricia Price, of Desborough Avenue, says that county council claims of congestion on Desborough Road are "nonsense" and that residents' lives will be blighted if proposals, including traffic lights and a bus priority lane, go ahead.

Wycombe district councillor Lesley Clarke (Con, Cressex and Frogmoor), co-founder of RATS, is backing residents and agrees that the roads "should be left alone".

"Why would they put such draconian measures on a road when there is really no need and so many people will be affected?" she said. "Aside from rush hour when the roads are slightly busier there is no problem."

Mrs Price feels that plans for traffic lights will increase congestion with cars "nose to tail" and that a bus priority lane will cause chaos for residents.

Her neighbour Peter Chandler fears he may not be able to pull out of his driveway if traffic lights are put up at the junction of Desborough Avenue and Lancaster Road.

He said: "They should leave well enough alone. I live right on the corner and the annoyance caused to us who live here will be horrendous. I don't know how I'll get in and out of my drive."

The suggestions for Desborough Avenue and Marlow Road are contained in the Wycombe Corridors Study, drawn up by Buckinghamshire County Council and Wycombe District Council.

As reported in the Free Press last month it looks at the four main road arteries into High Wycombe and suggests measures to make life easier for pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and above all to speed up buses.

The study will go out in the autumn for people to have their say.

A spokesman for the county council said: "We will take on board people's views and then look into developing plans to alleviate traffic in that stretch of road."