THE spot where an elderly woman was crushed to death under the wheels of a refuse truck in Wimborne Square has now been marked with two poignant bunches of flowers.

The woman has still not formally been identified by the coroner's office but is believed to have been from Wimborne and in her 80s.

Less than 24 hours after her tragic death, calls for the square to be pedestrianised have been met with scepticism from the town's traders who say that in the current economic climate they are just about clinging onto their businesses as it is.

The woman pedestrian, walking with the aid of a stick, died on Thursday lunchtime after she went under the wheels of the red dustbin truck, which may or may not have been reversing at the time, near to the King's Head Hotel.

Wimborne Minster district councillor Marilyn Osner said: "This tragedy has brought things to a head. I've been banging on about this pedestrianisation for many years.

"It's already been done in Shaftesbury and Blandford and now it's the turn of Wimborne."

She says proposals for a town centre enhancement scheme, including some form of traffic management in the Square, are in the early stages of development, with the town council, district council and county council working together.

A spokesman at the county council said public consultation into the plans would be carried out in the near future.

But the president of Wimborne's chamber of trade, John Beckett, said: "This is the first time that something like this has happened in the Square and in my opinion its not dangerous for pedestrians.

"If there was an accident every three months then of course that would be something different.

"Traders in Wimborne have enough problems as it is and traffic in the Square isn't one of them."