DRIVERS in Richmondshire have been warned to cut their speed or fall foul of new anti-speeding equipment.

Two matrix boards, which flash up motorists' speeds, and a pro-laser speed gun have been bought by the community safety partnership and trials begin on Monday. The equipment will be used across the district from January.

The scheme, Sign up to Safety, is being launched in conjunction with North Yorkshire County Council traffic management and road safety group and North Yorkshire fire and rescue service. Other safety partnerships in North Yorkshire, which are working to cut road accidents, are to monitor its success.

Initially, the matrix boards will be used in areas where parish councils or residents have reported a perceived speeding problem.

As drivers approach the boards they activate the display, which flashes a 30mph or 40mph speed warning. Fire officers and police community support officers will operate the boards.

While the boards are designed to remind drivers of speed limits and act only as a deterrent, they have a camera inside to record each driver's individual speed. The information is then downloaded into a computer, which analyses whether speeding at that spot is a problem. This information will not be used to issue speeding prosecutions, but areas identified as having speeding problems will be targeted by community beat officers using the speed gun.

County councillor Carl Les, a member of the community safety partnership, said: "By purchasing the matrix boards and speed gun, we are responding to residents' concerns and addressing a major problem in Richmondshire. The numbers of casualties arising from road accidents are a serious problem and we are determined to reduce them and make the roads safer for everybody."

Use of the matrices and speed guns will be accompanied by a road safety campaign aimed at schools. Richmond-based company Dam-bach, which supplied the matrices and speed gun, has offered to support the partnership at road safety events.

Coun Lynn Miller, chairman of the partnership, said: "Education is the best form of enforcement and if by targeting young children as well as their parents, we can change people's attitudes to speeding issues, we are halfway to achieving our aim."