An Oxford builder fed up with sleepless nights from a noisy road hump outside his home took direct action and dug it up with a mechanical digger.

Ian Beesley digs up Ferry Hinksey Road

Ian Beesley, who runs his own construction company, took just over an hour to remove the raised surface designed to slow down traffic in Ferry Hinksey Road.

He was unrepentant about his actions and said he was prepared to go to prison. He told the Oxford Mail: "I was cheesed off. I've been complaining about it to everyone for ages and they just haven't listened.

"My wife and I can't get to sleep with all the noise from lorries going over this hump. This morning I decided that's it, I've had enough, I am going to dig it up.

"If I get nicked and go to prison, so what? If they put the hump back in the same place, I will dig it up again."

The 41-year-old, who was featured complaining about the noise in Saturday's Oxford Mail, went to work on Saturday morning, watched by his wife Lillian, and helped by two friends who did not want to be named. Armed with his own JCB and pneumatic drill they made short work of the hump, measuring about 20ft by 12ft long, and 6in high.

It was installed outside the Beesleys' home as part of a £90,000 scheme to slow down traffic to and from the Osney Mead industrial estate.

On either side of the hump are pedestrian crossing lights for children going to West Oxford Primary School.

Council officers cannot claim that Mr Beesley's demolition job came out of the blue.

According to Susanna Pressel, city councillor for the ward, he warned her two weeks ago that he would dig up the road, and she passed the message on to the county highways department.

She said: "He rang me up again on Tuesday in despair and I again contacted the officers. He is a very determined man and made it quite clear what he would do.

"I am not taking sides on this -- I myself would not do what he has done. The scheme was for the safety of the children. But surely it needing looking at if it was causing sleepless nights to residents."

Mr Beesley's wife, Lillian, who runs the Walter Mittey's pub in nearby Osney Island, fully backed him. She said they repeatedly complained about the vibration from lorries bouncing over the hump and the noise of screeching air brakes.

"We have been passed from pillar to post and got absolutely nowhere. In the last month my husband has made 26 'phone calls about it.

"I know that he will be in trouble with the law and hope that he doesn't go to prison. But there seemed nothing else to do," she said.

The traffic calming scheme was taken over by Oxfordshire County Council after being approved by the city council. Mr Colin Carritt, area engineer, first heard of Mr Beesley's direct action from the Oxford Mail and claimed it was the first time anyone had dug up a road hump.

"We have had several instances of people putting down their own humps, but never this," said Mr Carritt.

: 'It does not surprise me, but I think there will have to be a prosecution.

"You can't have people taking the law into their own hands, otherwise residents all over the county who complain they are being disturbed by road humps will demand us to come and level them."

Last night Mrs Beesley said they had not been visited by either the police or council.