Children say: ‘Please drive slowly through our villages’

The temporary roadside posters are part of an anti-speeding campaign launched by the local Neighbourhood Action Group 5 (NAG5) – one of several NAGs in the Thames Valley. The group sent out questionnaires to local residents, and found speeding was the main concern in all three villages.

Children from Sutton Courtenay (C of E) Primary School and Drayton Community Primary School entered a competition to design anti-speeding pictures for the campaign, after members of NAG5, the neighbourhood police team and Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Road Safety officers introduced the idea to pupils at school assemblies.

The designs by Rebecca Norkett, aged seven, from Drayton Community School, and Ashley Massey, aged 10, from Sutton Courtenay School, were chosen and will appear on the temporary posters.

Mandy Rigault, Senior Road Safety Officer for Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Road Safety Team, said: “This is an example of great partnership and collaborative working – and fantastic designs from the young people.”

Powerful deterrents

Councillor Judith Heathcoat, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Safer and Stronger Communities, added: “I am very impressed by the collaborative nature of this project. It is good to see our young people taking part in such a worthwhile initiative and I would like to congratulate the Neighbourhood Action Group and all those involved, on what they have achieved. The winning designs look fantastic.”

Rita Atkinson, chairman of NAG5, said: “Messages given by children act as powerful deterrents to motorists - particularly as surveys have shown that motorists living in the villages form the largest group caught speeding.”

Thames Valley Police Neighbourhood Police team carried out speed checks and found around 40 per cent of speeding motorists were villagers.

Police Community Support Officer Sandra Syphas and NAG5 member Bridget Haffenden have co-ordinated the poster project, which was funded by Drayton Parish Council, Sutton Courtenay (National Power) Trust and South and Vale Community Safety Partnership.

Posters go up

The first posters will go up in Drayton at the junction of Newman’s Lane and Abingdon Road on Thursday, 5 July, at 2pm.