Pupils of St Thomas of Canterbury Primary School are taking action against unwanted bad driving behaviour by participating in a speed watch campaign in the vicinity of their school on Thursday 12 November.

Year 6 children will be using Genius speed guns funded by the Safer Guildford Partnership to stop and speak to offending motorists and make them aware of their bad driving habits.

Pippa James, Community Travel Advisor (West) said: “The scheme has proved highly successful elsewhere in the county and really brings home the safe driving message to motorists. It is very impactive when a child stands in front of you with a clipboard and says – “We hope talking to me today will make you think about driving more slowly in the future”.

The scheme is being launched following feedback from the local police community support officer (PCSO) that people in the area were worried about speeding motorists and parking issues in the area.

Kevin Gawley, Headteacher at St Thomas said: “The children are very excited about working alongside the community team to raise drivers' awareness of the dangers of excessive speed and have promised to share the safety message with as many drivers as they can.

Mr Gawley added: “The project is also of great benefit to them, as they will be a future generation of drivers themselves. If the project manages to avoid just one child being injured, then it is very worthwhile.”

The initiative part of the countywide driving campaign, ‘Drive SMART’ and aims to educate children about safe transport and traffic awareness, educate motorists about their driving behaviour and reassure the local residents that action is being taken.

‘Drive SMART’ is a year-long campaign by Surrey County Council and Surrey Police to tackle the problem of anti-social driving. One of the first initiatives by Dr Andrew Povey, the newly elected Leader of Surrey County Council, was to pledge £1million to set up the campaign after the issue was regularly identified as a concern by residents to local councillors.