Oxford City Council's decision to buy speed guns will be welcomed by many city residents.

Inconsiderate motorists make life a misery for families in many parts of the city.

In an ideal world, we would expect the police to carry out regular checks on all roads, but we know that is never going to happen.

Traffic police are so thin on the ground they can't even maintain adequate patrols on main roads.

So it makes sense to allow responsible residents to take control of their streets.

They won't, of course, be able to prosecute anyone.

But at least they will be able to gather evidence of persistent speeding and the danger it creates, and hopefully persuade the police and the council that it is worth putting in speed cameras or other measures.

The chances are that motorists seeing a speed gun pointed at them will slow down automatically, not knowing whether it is a policeman or a member of the public holding it.

The scheme has worked well in other parts of the country where speeding has become a problem.

So why not Oxford?