A FURTHER move is being made to reduce speeding on roads in St Austell.

A whole raft of 20mph zones are planned for the town and now a mobile speed-activated sign is also set to be introduced.

The town council has agreed to make an upfront contribution of more than £13,000 towards the speed awareness sign which is being bought by Cornwall Council.

The sign will be rotated by Cornwall Council across six locations which have been approved by a highways officer.

The six spots are in Daniels Lane, Menear Road, Porthpean Road, Slades Road, Southbourne Road and Victoria Road.

When the sign was discussed by the town council, different views were expressed about Cornwall Council asking for an upfront contribution of £13,019.59 which will cover four years.

Many town councillors thought that Cornwall Council as the highways authority should fund all the costs of buying, maintaining and managing the sign, and that the contribution asked for seemed excessive.

However, Cllr Anne Double said that while the situation wasn’t ideal, it was an opportunity to deter speeding in the town and to gather evidence of problem areas.

After further discussion, a vote in favour of making the contribution was carried.

Cornwall Council has told the Voice that while the speed-activated sign project is going ahead in St Austell, the timescale for its installation is still to be confirmed.

Similar signs were introduced in Newquay earlier this year. At the time, motorists there were told that the signs are not used to issue speeding tickets.

Instead, they display the speed a driver is travelling at, which acts as a deterrent to those travelling above the speed limit, and also gather data on speeding and car movements.

Such signs have been used to gather the necessary information required before the installation of permanent speed cameras at various locations elsewhere.

The speed awareness signs are said to have proved very successful in tackling speeding issues on a number of roads around Cornwall.