VILLAGERS in Nuneham Courtenay have erected their own signs warning drivers to slow down, three months after a speed camera was switched off.

The posters have been put up by children and parents along the A4074 in an attempt to stop drivers speeding past their homes.

The village’s speed camera was switched off on August 1, along with the rest of the county’s 72 fixed cameras and seven traffic light cameras, after Oxfordshire County Council cut £600,000 from its grant to the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership.

The posters were designed by children at nearby Marsh Baldon School after villager Mark Williams, 41, approached headteacher Nick Pitson.

Mr Williams, who has lived in the village since he was three, came up with the idea after it was decided at a public meeting in August that the community could not afford to pay to adopt the camera.

He said: “They’ve taken our speed camera away, so we’re doing what we can to lower speeds.

“I think the signs look wonderful.

“The children have done a fantastic job and in the first day people said they made a difference.

“I have had a couple of residents give me the thumbs-up to say the signs are working.

“The parish council told me not to ahead with it, because it’s an offence to put up signs on a road but I thought I was going to do it anyway.”

The father-of-two, whose nine-year-old daughter Ellie made one of the posters, added: “My intention is to leave them up until I’m told to remove them.”

The colourful posters carry messages such as ‘Speeding kills’ and ‘Go Slow’.

Resident Colin George said: “People who speed through the village are probably unaware of the potential hazards, but there are a number of children who have to cross the road to get to school and there are many driveways that lead on to the road where visibility is blocked by trees and vehicles.

“Speeding is a question of respect and trying to get across to motorists that this is a community, that people live here.”

Oxfordshire County Council declined to comment on the posters.

Council spokesman Marcus Mabberley said: “Speed cameras in Oxfordshire have been switched off as a result of 2010-11 cuts in Government grant.

“This specific cut will help preserve many of our other services – in the sphere of highways, social care and other areas.

“These cuts in grant to all councils are likely to be continued and increased in future years.”