SPEED bumps are being phased out of roads in Worcestershire amid concerns they are worsening pollution and annoying the public.

Council chiefs have officially declared the bumps as old-fashioned relics from a bygone era - with efforts being made to slowly eradicate them and instead rely on more modern forms of traffic calming.

It comes as leading research has unearthed evidence of the unpopular concrete humps contributing to pollution with all the stop-start driving, regular reliance on the use of brakes and engine revving.

Worcestershire County Council says it is not putting any more bumps in and that existing ones will be removed on a piece-meal basis, with some already gone.

When roads are resurfaced, highways chiefs are asking nearby householders if they are happy for the bumps to go and if so it is flattened out.

The Advertiser can reveal how the strategy is not being opposed by road safety groups, mainly because of the growth in other traffic-calming measures like pedestrian crossings, islands and chicanes.

Jon Fraser, head of highways at County Hall, said: "They were 'flavour of the month' in the 1980s, but there are now concerns over pollution and noise.

"In a lot of places where we've put them in, residents have complained and when people slow down and change gear so much, it's actually polluting as well.

"We are not taking them out en masse but when we resurface roads we ask if people still want it there, and when we do that we find most residents see them as a nuisance.

"Each location is looked at on an individual basis, but there are other things we can do now which is better like mini roundabouts, give-ways or pedestrian crossings."

Conservative Councillor Anthony Blagg, the deputy leader and cabinet member for the environment, said he has already had some removed in north Worcestershire a couple of years ago.

"The speed humps don't do what they are supposed to do because cars stop before suddenly speeding up again, so they contribute to pollution," he said.

"Putting your brakes on and off grinds the metal down onto your disc pads, which pollutes the air - they are also inconvenient for local people, householders can get vibrations from them."

Worcestershire's Safer Roads Partnership said it was happy to leave the matter with the county council, calling it "an engineering issue".

The policy has also curried favour with Worcester Green Party, which says it is pleased to see them going.

Green Councillor Louis Stephen, who runs the city branch, said: "They are quite unpopular with people, so we wouldn't be against this.

"Speed bumps cause problems with exhaust fumes, with cars slowing down and then speeding up. There are other ways of calming traffic."

Research by Imperial College London has found that driving over bumps in diesel cars produces "98 per cent more nitrogen dioxide" than motoring across other road cushions.

The Government, which is being forced to reconsider measures for improving air quality after the High Court said the UK did not meet minimum standards, is expected to ask councils across Britain to follow suit.