LOCALS have set up a fake speed camera in an effort to get motorists to slow down as they drive past.
Lizzie Coombes, 56, who had the idea with neighbour Cluny Macpherson, 60, have used a bird box as a way to get motorists to keep to the 30mph limit.
The yellow wooden box – measuring 1ft (35cm) wide and sitting atop a 10ft (30m) metal pole – is clearly visible to passing traffic that pass by Cluny’s garden.
But instead of catching speeding motorists, it’s actually a nesting box for blue tits and was designed for free by a local men’s group.
Artist Lizzie – who described the fake speed camera as both “gently radical” and “something quite playful” – insisted that they hadn’t broken the law by putting it up.
She said: “It’s something quite playful and just a little intervention.
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“It’s not meant to completely and utterly convince people that it’s a speed camera but to start the conversation.
“If it changes or makes one per cent of people think differently, well that’s better than none.
“And in terms of the legalities of it, we haven’t breached anything, it just happens to look a little bit like a speed camera.”
Lizzie said the fake camera was part of a project that residents on Meanwood Road in Leeds, West Yorkshire, hoped would change the atmosphere of their neighbourhood.
She said: “We started a project, it’s called The Meanwood Road Project, and we’re looking to see if we can change the feel of the road.
“It’s 30mph yet it feels a much faster road. It’s wide and we have narrow pavements, so there’s a sense that this is a place where people can speed through.
“Part of the project was looking at how you bring communities together rather than pitching one against the other – say residents against drivers.
“We came across this voluntary group called the Men’s Shed. They make bird boxes, and I asked them if they could make a bird box that looked like a speed camera.”
Former civil servant Cluny, who has the fake camera in his garden, said he hoped it might help his disabled daughter cross the road more easily by deterring boy racers.
He said: “My daughter is disabled and can’t walk very well. We take her around the local area, but the only place we can go involves crossing the road.
“In the early evening, when the road isn’t clogged up with commuter traffic and it looks like a long straight road, people do seem like they’re driving more than the 30mph limit.”
Cluny Macpherson
“She walks really slowly, and we have to make sure there’s no traffic for 100m in either direction.
“In the early evening, when the road isn’t clogged up with commuter traffic and it looks like a long straight road, people do seem like they’re driving more than the 30mph limit.”
Lizzie, who said she’d been woken up by loud engines on the road in the past, wasn’t sure how effective the fake camera had been at halting fast drivers.
But she said it had stirred comments on local Facebook groups, which said was helping to promote further discussion on the issue.
She said: “It’s difficult to calculate whether it’s had an effect. What is has done is started conversations on local Facebook groups, which are really interesting to read.
“You’ll have people saying ‘Watch out, there’s a speed camera’ and then someone will say, ‘It’s not, it’s a bird box.’
“Then another person will say, ‘That’s a stupid idea, I can put my foot down now I know it’s not real.’ And then another person comes in and says, ‘Well, you shouldn’t be speeding anyway.’
She added: “It’s not illegal because it’s in a person’s garden, and doesn’t actually say it’s a speed camera.
“And if you go up to it on the sign, it tells you it’s part of our Meanwood Road Project.”
Cluny said he hoped the box would attract blue tits and grey tits in the future but said no wildlife had taken up the chance to live in it yet.
He said: “I have put bits of bread on the top to try and get them to have a look. It’s possible that we would get birds nesting in there, but we will see.”
It’s not the first time locals have put up fake speed cameras in a bid to prevent drivers from speeding.
In August, a pub landlady revealed she’d made a couple of fakes from old veg boxes and a bit of yellow paint after a couple of smashes outside her boozer.
Emily Cook, 37, took the law into her own hands after failing to persuade her local council and cops to improve road safety on the busy main road through her village, Shurdington, Gloucs, where locals have reported cars zooming through at speeds of up to 80mph.
Similarly, in April this year, villagers in West Lulworth, Dorset, put up a realistic-looking camera after becoming frustrated with tourists speeding by.
An official Dorset Police anti-drink drive ‘No Excuse’ sign has also been attached to the pole, making the Gatso-style object appear more credible.
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Locals in Rockcliffe Way, Newcastle, also set up a ‘camera’ of their own after they branded the road a “death trap”.
The road has a 20mph speed limit, but the residents took matters into their own hands after witnessing how often it was broken.
