A speed monitor has been installed on a "rat run" through the village of King's Ripton with the support of the Community Roadwatch scheme.

Now David McCandless, from the independent volunteer Community Roadwatch (CRW) group, has urged other community and resident groups with speeding problems to get in touch to see if it can help.

Mr McCandless said: "Kings Ripton village has always been a rat-run and over the years has seen the installation of various measures that have been installed in stages to complement each other in reducing the speeds through the village’s narrow roads and single even narrower pavement .

"However, even though these measure do a good job there are still some drivers that Community Roadwatch has identified who continue to threaten the safety of residents."

Mr McCandless, who used to be co-ordinator of the police-backed Speedwatch scheme, said they lent a lightweight speed indicator to Kings Ripton to assess the speeding problem, especially in the School Lane area.

This led to CRW recommending that the parish bought its own monitor through a county council Local Highway Improvement (LHI) scheme.

Mr McCandless said: "Unfortunately, the Parish then was not in a position to afford the 10 per cent contribution the £5k LHI application demanded.

"So, over the next year or so CRW, whilst continuing to carry our speed gun sessions with its residents that resulted in polite letters being sent to non-compliant companies, saved up that £500 deposit, from donations from other grateful parishes and from projects for Mick George, and donated it to Kings Ripton Parish Council to enable it to successfully apply for a grant."

He added: "We programmed its speed thresholds as a warning sign. Subsequently, with Cllr Philip Rayner's assistance, the device was installed on one of three posts installed at CRW-recommended locations throughout the village for it to be best placed to show drivers their speeds and thereby moderate the speeding observed by us."

Mr McCandless said: “If any Parish or resident group needs accurate bidirectional data for this next round of LHI applications, then contact Community Roadwatch – md@roadwatch.org.uk ."