Residents hope to slow traffic using fake speed camera

IT has made drivers think twice but a village speed camera is actually fake.

It’s just one of the ways residents in St Brides Major, near Bridgend, have come up with to try to get drivers to slow down.

The fake speed camera on Ewenny Road is to make drivers slow down near the school and it has been in operation for a week.

Jamie Griffiths, who developed the idea, said it had been constructed to try to protect children. He asked his friend, who runs Action Doors, to help him make the device.

Mr Griffiths said: “It’s quite dangerous – people slow down around peak school time travel because they have to. But after about 5pm you’ll see boy racers and quite big lorries, and if they drive at speed it can be really dangerous.”

He said that people from two different community groups – the St Brides Major hub and Safe at St Brides – have teamed up on the projects.

“The whole purpose of these groups is to slow the traffic down and make it a safer area,” said Mr Griffiths.

“There’s been a lot of debate as to if it’s real – when it first went up people were discussing it on the local Facebook pages.”

The camera is already having successes – a motorcyclist recently stopped fearing he had been clocked.

Mr Griffiths added: “People have definitely been slowing down.

“We originally had it facing towards Bridgend, which wasn’t very successful, but then we turned it to face Llantwit Major. It was more effective then, and it’s gone down well with local people.”