A controversial traffic calming scheme in Wheatley has provoked a mixed reaction from villagers.

Speed humps and give way points designed to slow traffic down, and cut the number of cars that take a short-cut through the village, were installed in Ladder Hill in June.

Some residents say the give way points are the wrong way round, allowing rat-runners priority and forcing buses and people coming into the village to wait.

Peter Lafford, 47, licensee of the Railway pub in Station Road, off Ladder Hill, said: "It's a waste of time because they have made it the wrong way round, so buses and people coming into the village have to slow down, but the rat-runners go straight through.

"They are always going to use the village as a short-cut, traffic calming makes nil difference to that.

"If they had put a speed camera in that would have been better. As soon as they get through they zoom off.

"We are just waiting for there to be an accident."

Mr Lafford said the traffic calming was having a detrimental effect on his business as workers from BMW, his main trade, were put off driving into the village because of the speed humps.

Anne Dallimore, 51, of Ladder Hill, one of the proprietors of Mill View Plant Centre in Ladder Hill, said: "Traffic calming is necessary, but I have yet to find anyone who wants the traffic calming in the way it has been done.

"A speed camera would have been a good deterrent.

"The speed humps do slow traffic down a bit, but it's too early to tell if there's less cars coming through."

Wheatley Parish Council chairman Gwendolen Birks, who lives in Ladder Hill, welcomed the scheme.

"The scheme seems to have slowed down traffic rather well," she said. "The signs are that it is already bringing substantial slowing down and safety benefits to the village.

"We have had a great number of approving comments from local people.

"We are hoping it will fulfil its potential in reducing inappropriate through traffic on our narrow villages streets and conservation area. There is some sign of this already."

County councillor for Wheatley Anne Purse said: "So many drivers were taking a short cut through Wheatley, bringing congestion to the narrow streets in the village centre in the early morning and late afternoon.

"I am pleased that speeds on Ladder Hill have already been reduced, and there seems to be less congestion in the village centre at peak times."

She added: "In a few weeks' time there will be a traffic survey to determine the reduction in the amount of traffic and the reduction in speed."

David Deriaz, senior traffic engineer with Oxfordshire County Council, said: "The people who take short-cuts through Wheatley go up the hill in the morning and come down in late afternoon."

He added: "We don't like to make cars going uphill give way as stopping and starting on a hill is slower.

"The humps encourage a reduction in speed from traffic going uphill."

The traffic calming scheme was built after consultation with Wheatley Parish Council and local people.