VILLAGERS could adopt a speed camera to stop motorists racing past their homes.

Parish councillors in Nuneham Courtenay, south of Oxford, believe the camera is the only realistic way of enforcing the 30mph speed limit on the A4074 through the village.

They fear drivers will ignore the limit once the county’s 72 fixed speed cameras and seven traffic lights cameras are turned off on Sunday.

The county council formally agreed yesterday to end its £600,000 grant to the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership, which runs the cameras.

The partnership said it would cost about £5,000 a year to keep a speed camera in operation. A spokesman said it would consider managing cameras on behalf of parish councils and community groups that were prepared to foot the bill.

Nuneham Courtenay parish councillor Colin George said: “The camera is the only real deterrent for keeping speeds down in what’s a residential area on a main road.

“The parish council was instrumental in getting the camera put in, for good reasons, so if there’s a way of keeping it, we would like to do so.

“We have sent a note to the partnership and county councillors, who have taken the view that the decision has already been taken to switch it off, so can we adopt it.”

Community groups are not allowed to enforce speed limits themselves, but can pay for someone else to do it for them.

Safer Roads Partnership spokesman Dan Campsall said the organisation would be prepared to consider loading the film and processing fines for communities willing to pay to keep speed cameras.

Mr Campsall said: “It’s a feasible idea, if local parishes and local residents are really determined to maintain that enforcement presence.

“We have got to be open to consider this kind of thing and it very much falls into the zeitgeist of the big society, where there’s local accountability for local services.”

Allan Yeung, the owner of the village’s Cockadoo restaurant, said: “It’s better to keep the camera.

“If it’s switched off, drivers will speed up and it will be less safe for people who drive through the village.”

It is not yet known how the parish council would meet the running costs for the camera, but they could add the cost to their annual precept in council tax bills.

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