Fake camera hoping to slow traffic through village
IT HAS made drivers think twice but this pretty convincing speed camera is actually totally fake.
It’s just one of the ideas residents in St Brides Major, near Bridgend, have had to try to get drivers to slow down.
Residents are concerned drivers travelling between Bridgend and Llanwit are going too fast.
This fake speed camera on Ewenny Road is to make drivers slow down near the local school.
Jamie Griffiths, who developed the idea, said it has been constructed to try to protect children. He asked his friend, who runs nearby company Action Doors, to help him make the device.
Mr Griffiths said: “It’s quite dangerous – people slow down around peak school time travel because they have to.
“But after about 5pm you’ll see boy racers and quite big lorries, and if they drive at speed it can be really dangerous.”
He said people from two different community groups – the St Brides Major Hub and Safe at St Brides – have teamed up on the project.
“The whole purpose of these groups is to slow the traffic down and make it a safer area,” said Mr Griffiths.
“There’s been a lot of debate as to if it’s real – when it first went up, people were discussing it on the local Facebook pages.
“One person said, ‘there’s no way they’d put a speed camera on top of a shed’ – which did make me laugh.”
But the camera is already having successes – a motorcyclist recently stopped, fearing he had been clocked.
According to a neighbour, he unscrewed the camera to see if it was real.
“But he didn’t damage the camera in any way,” Jamie said.
“People have definitely been slowing down, though. We originally had it facing towards Bridgend, which wasn’t very successful, but then we turned it to face Llantwit Major.
“It was more effective then and it’s gone down well with local people.”