Wool ewe please slow down? Fake sheep the latest weapon against speeding

A FLOCK of fake sheep could be the latest and most unlikely weapon in a village’s fight against speeding drivers.
Efforts to slow traffic along the A688 through Staindrop have largely been unsuccessful. Village councillors have complained that Durham County Council and the police aren’t doing enough to solve the problem. But rather than bleating on, villagers have come up with a solution to pull the wool over the eyes of motorists and make them go slower.
Highways officials are now being consulted over a plan to install fake sheep near the road on the entrances to the village.
Cllr Ed Chicken told the parish council how drivers automatically slow down when they see a lamb that has broken through a hedge alongside the road and suggested the council buy fake sheep to place at the entrances to the village.
A previous effort to put up gateways at the east and west entrances has had little effect on traffic and some villagers have described them as “two palettes” cobbled together.
Cllr Chicken added: “They [the fake sheep] are about £60 which isn’t a lot of money when you think we spent £600 on a couple of palettes. I’m not saying it is a good idea.
“What I am saying is, nothing has happened in the years I have been here. Nothing at all. We can talk about it and have the same conversation, but unless you find something different, nothing will happen.”
Parish clerk Tom Bolton warned that Durham County Council would have to give permission for the fake sheep to be placed alongside the highway. He also warned about the possibility of the sheep being stolen.
Mr Bolton said: “I don't think they would walk away on their own, but they would need to be securely fixed.”
Not everyone on the council was convinced.
Council chairman David Reed said more should be done to get police involved. He suggested councillors attend the next Police and Community Together (PACT) meeting in Barnard Castle.
Cllr Reed said: “To me the only way we are going to stop speeding in Staindrop is to put a speed camera in so that people get fined. What we want is people getting fined and points on their licence. I think Durham Police need to get into the 21st century and get speed cameras up, not just in Staindrop but in a lot of other villages as well because it is a problem in every village.”
Deputy parish chairman Cllr Darrel Chapman added that currently people are only sent warning letters when caught during speedwatch activities, which are run by volunteers and the police. He agreed that people should be given heavier penalties.
Cllr Chapman said: “If they get done speeding on that camera, that’s it, they get fined. If they are done, they are done. Do them all, do every one of them. I don’t want them sent a letter, I want them done.
“You know it will take someone being killed in this village before anything gets done.”
Councillors agreed to raise the issue with police and to ask Durham County Council’s highways officers for permission to install the fake sheep at the village gateways.
They have also requested that the county council give provide statistics about speeding in the village.
Cllr Chicken said the last statistics the parish council received showed as much as 15 per cent of vehicles passing through the village were speeding.