Residents in Long Buckby have complained about the look of Station Road, including cars parked on verges, and traffic speeding along it.

Sue Porter, clerk for Long Buckby Parish Council, said: “That area requires considerable improvement. It’s been described as looking like a mining village. It’s very shabby, and with the parking on the verges it’s looking decidedly tired.”

Now villagers have the chance to see proposals for £20,000 worth of improvements drawn up by local landscape architects Robin Lock and Mike Greaves.

Mr Lock, who also worked on the Eden Project in Cornwall, said: “It's a nice village but not that beautiful. We could create something more subtle. We have not got detailed designs yet, just ideas for people to comment on. There could be avenues of trees, or subtle gabion walling placements, like different coloured bollards. We want to know what people think.”

The plans include planting trees on verges to force people to park in the road, creating a method of traffic calming.

Mr Lock added: “There are many reasons why it is favourable for people to park on the road, especially as people going along Station Road often go very fast. We have to accept we are doing soft landscaping, we cannot implement speed restrictions. We can make recommendations but it is the county council that can implement them.”

Station Road was designated a red route by Northampton-shire County Council in April last year.

A spokesman said: The casualty reduction team has seen a reduction in the number of accidents since last year and are continuously monitoring traffic and introducing schemes to help with traffic calming and speed enforcement.”

The improvement work, which will be funded by a £10,000 grant from the county council’s Empowering Councillors Scheme and the parish council, could start in September or October.

The plans will be on display in the village library from 10am to 3pm on Saturday. They will then be revised with residents' views in mind before being submitted to the parish council.