CHILDREN could be called on to help a campaign to slow down traffic speeding through their home village - Aston Rowant, near Thame.

They may be asked by a new action committee to make their own 'Slow Down' signs to be posted alongside the road.

Aston Rowant and neighbouring Kingston Blount lie on the B4009 between Chinnor and junction 6 of the M40, at Lewknor.

Although both villages have 30mph limits, traffic speeds through too fast, claims campaigner Margaret Mason, who runs a bed and breakfast at Tower Cottage.

She and seven other concerned villagers have formed an action committee to try to find ways of slowing down the traffic.

She said: "We need ideas for traffic-calming measures of some sort - people who come off the motorway are still in 70mph-plus mode, and they speed along this road, despite the 30mph signs.

"We have been given £1,000 by the parish council but we would have to raise another £7,000 ourselves to afford one of these signs which light up when people approach above the speed limit."

She said she had seen signs in Bishopstone, over the border in Buckinghamshire, made by local schoolchildren.

Mrs Mason said: "We could follow their examples - we're having meetings and these things will be discussed. But any suggestions will be gratefully received."

However, Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority has told the parish council which looks after both villages that the results of traffic surveys did not justify traffic-calming measures.