Villagers in Fillongley, Warwickshire, knitted fake speed cameras to slow drivers down

A knitting group in Fillongley, a village in Warwickshire, has filled its roadsides with knitted speed cameras, traffic cops and zebras to get drivers to slow down, the BBC reported on 15 October.

The village has a busy crossroads with a history of accidents. Warwickshire County Council has recorded 11 road traffic collisions there in the past four years.

Members of the Fillongley Knit and Natter group spent four months on the project, the Coventry Telegraph reported, and put it up on 13 October. There are knitted speed cameras, hi-vis vests, zebras perched above the crossing signs, tortoises telling drivers to slow down, and knitted children on benches holding road safety signs.

“It has had a massive impact,” one of the villagers involved told the Coventry Telegraph. Heather Badham, the parish clerk, told the BBC the figures were not meant to replace official measures.

The favourite was an RAF airman in a knitted hi-vis vest, standing under the 30mph sign with a knitted speed gun. It was made in honour of the father of one of the knitters, who served in the RAF in the Second World War.

Two days after it went up, it was gone. “Someone’s stolen it between 07:10 and 08:05 and I’m gutted for the ladies that knitted that, because of the amount of work that went into it,” Badham said. “This is a piece of village heritage and it’s just been taken by somebody.”