Secret weapon to stop village speedsters: a pair of scarecrows
Residents of Hindon turn to the straw-stuffed characters after being denied ‘speed watch’ area
FOR centuries, scarecrows have been used by farmers to frighten off birds from crops. But now a Wiltshire village has put them to a different use after police refused to allow residents to report dangerous driving on their high street.
Wearing high-visibility jackets and holding a fake speed gun, the male and female scarecrows have proved “highly effective” in stopping motorists from speeding in Hindon, residents say.
The pair stand alongside a real digital speed monitor, which logs the speeds of cars driving passed the village hall. The device also flashes a warning sign saying “slow down” at motorists who break the speed limit.
Parish councillor Frank Freeman, who runs the village’s community speed watch scheme, said: “The scarecrows have had a tremendous effect in preventing motorists from speeding along the high street. We don’t know whether drivers slow down to look at them out of curiosity or whether they are fooled into thinking that there is someone there with a speed gun.”
Over recent years, the village’s team of volunteer speed monitors as well as local residents had become deeply concerned about cars travelling as fast as 60mph in the 30mph zone on the high street.
The group applied to Wiltshire Police for permission to station volunteer speed monitors outside the village hall. The group was told that the high street location they had identified “did not meet the force criteria” for permission to be granted for a “speed watch”.
“We’ve been trying for some time to get police to authorise us to work from the bottom of our high street where motorists drive too fast. But we got nowhere,” Mr Freeman added.
“So we came up with the idea of making two scarecrows to operate from the spot where we were not allowed to operate.”
Mr Freeman and his wife, Amanda, built the scarecrows and positioned them outside the village hall where the pair have been on duty for two weeks.
Angus Macpherson, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon, said that despite the group providing a “long and detailed” argument and a senior officer visiting Mr Freeman, the site failed to meet Wiltshire Police’s criteria to allow a speed monitor scheme.
“I’m advised by crime prevention officers that Mr Freeman’s location does not meet the Force criteria,” he said.
“The traffic movement counts carried out by Wiltshire Council, together with data from a speed indicator device, have been reviewed in reaching that decision.
“In addition, the Force tells me that a review of data for the numbers killed or seriously injured in Hindon shows there has been one serious inin jury in the past three years – and that was some 30 metres from the junction
in question.”