A village battling "awful" traffic and speeding problems could host 26 new homes - but its school and councillors are cautiously welcoming the plans.

Copeland Council received plans to turn the site in Moor Row, off Scalegill Road into a 26-home development - an extension of a current development of four homes.

Moor Row Community Primary School has been trying to educate drivers and children about the problems with traffic in the village, with teacher Joanne McCourt saying cars have been clocked travelling "almost triple the speed limit".

But she added that more families and children in the village is "good for the school" and the main problem with traffic is caused by commuters "using the village as a shortcut" when they are wanting avoid the main roads.

The brownfield site, near to the Coast to Coast cycle track to the west of Moor Row, has previously been used as a franchise car garage and used car lot with offices, workshops and a store. The plans show that there could be 20 houses with four bedrooms or more and six three-bedroom homes.

Miss McCourt said: "From 3pm until about 6pm, the traffic in the village is awful - it's nose to tail. It's also a hotspot for accidents with cars going double and almost triple the speed limit.

"If we have more people and more cars it could make it worse, but the real problem is trying to educate drivers to stick to the speed limit and realise there is a school here."

Chairwoman of Egremont town council, Lena Hogg, said the planned development shows that Moor Row is an "area which is on the up".

"New houses are good news for us," she said. "This is an area which is starting to lift its head, and as long as there's a impact assessment into the development's effect on traffic, I think it's a good thing."

Egremont town council has not yet met to discuss the plans, but Coun Hogg said some of the councillors will visit proposed development site.

She added: "They've got to build houses where people want to live and people want to live in Moor Row because it's a lovely little village. There is no point building 1,000 houses in a place where people don't want to live."

County councillor for Egremont North, Henry Wormstrop has been been lobbying Highways England and Cumbria County Council to get junction improvements and the speed reduced to Woodend to Moor Row - after "lots of complaints" about traffic on Scalegill Road.

He said: "While I welcome the development, with new comes problems with infrastructure. This is an area which already has problems with access and egress."