Bird box shaped like speed camera foxes motorists

LONDON - A bird box shaped like a speed camera has forced motorists to slow down in a British village and the villagers are delighted with the result.

Retired detective Bill Angus set up the plywood contraption, complete with metallic strips and what appear to be lenses on the side, on a pole at the edge of his garden, Daily Express reported Monday.

Before the bird box was erected, motorists used to travel at speeds up to 90 mph but since it appeared they have been keeping to the 30 mph limit.

Its a bird box and has been designed this way to stop people stealing it. Its painted a bright colour to attract the blue tits and finches.

With the cold snap over the last month or two, we have been asked to provide boxes for little birds. Why does everyone think its a fake speed camera? Angus was quoted as asking.

Villagers had been demanding that a camera be set up to reduce the speed of traffic in Newbottle, near Sunderland, but were informed it was not a priority site.

Ray King, project manager at Northumbria Safer Road Partnership, which controls the siting of speed cameras, said: We have no issue with a bird box that looks like a camera. If it slows the traffic, all the better.