Villagers demanding a roundabout be built on a notoriously dangerous junction yesterday handed in a 350-signature petition to county council officials.

Villagers demanding a roundabout be built on a notoriously dangerous junction yesterday handed in a 350-signature petition to county council officials.

The villagers, from Pulham St Mary and Pulham Market, near Diss, want the roundabout at the crossroads of the A140 Norwich to Ipswich road and the B1134, which links Tivetshall with their villages.

They say travelling across the A140 is like “playing Russian roulette”, with 15,000 vehicles using the main road each day, many exceeding the 60mph limit at the sloping junction.

Kerri Worrall, a Pulham resident who created the petition, said yesterday: “Everyone I've spoken to from the two villages has been very keen to sign this.

“They all say it's something we've needed for years and years, in fact I know the parish council have been lobbying for this for 20 years.”

When Mrs Worrall launched her petition at the end of January the county council said that her timing could not have been worse - because just the week before they had earmarked £800,000 for building the roundabout in 2008/9.

Mrs Worrall said yesterday she decided to push ahead to show the county council just how important the scheme was to villagers.

“They've promised to build us a roundabout before but it's slipped off the agenda,” she said.

Adrian Gunson, county council cabinet member for transportation, received the petition outside county hall yesterday. He said: “Our engineers are working on the design for this roundabout as we speak and we hope to begin physical work next year. We're going as fast as we can.”