Work has begun to change the shape of the highest road humps in the county - despite villagers' fears that it could lead to higher speeds and more traffic.

The controversial humps were introduced to Kennington in 1991 and virtually eliminated the high number of serious accidents in the village overnight.

However, calls to lower them came after the Oxford Bus Company claimed that its new low-floor single-deck vehicles were being damaged and became stuck.

Many villagers resisted the calls, though, fearing a return to the bad old days of the 1980s when a number of serious accidents happened along Kennington Road and The Avenue every year. A compromise was finally reached after Oxfordshire County Council engineers suggested re-shaping the humps so the approach side stayed at the same height but the drop was lowered.

However, Kennington Parish Council has insisted that, once the work is complete, surveys be carried out to test the effect the changes make on both the speed of cars passing through the village and the sheer volume of traffic.

Parish clerk George Ross said: "Our concern is that we don't return to the bad accident record the roads had before. There is still that worry in the village.

In return for the county agreeing to carry out the work, the bus company offered to continue running loss-making services.

The re-modelled humps were tested at three sites.

Following the success of that experiment, the parish council accepted that all of the humps could be altered.

Story date: Monday 22 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.