AN INNOVATIVE approach to deter speeding and dangerous driving in Clacks has been deployed by New Struan School.

The school is Scottish Autism’s day and residential school, based in Alloa, and has taken matters into their own hands to ensure drivers slow down.

One of their pupils Caine Arnott, 17, was out on his daily walk with his classroom assistant Lynsey Smith when they noticed that vehicles were speeding down Smithfield Loan.

The stretch of the road outside New Struan School is a 20mph zone, yet they witnessed vehicles driving in excess of this, reaching up to 30mph or more.

The school requested interventions from Clackmannanshire Council to implement new calming measures, and were advised that the 20mph roundels would be repainted.

However, this has done little to quell the speeding rates, forcing them to contact the community police officer who said he would deploy a team with a radar gun to address matters.

New Struan School decided to take matters into their own hands and have recruited their own makeshift police officer.

‘PC Struan’ has been deployed to act as a deterrent to motorists speeding down Smithfield Loan.

Lynsey said: “While out with Caine on our Daily Mile, we noticed that cars were travelling in excess of the speed limit, and this presented a safety issue for our pupils while out taking their daily exercise.

“When we approached the council for assistance, they said that they cannot do more because Smithfield Loan is an industrial road, but we felt that we had to do something to ensure that the pupils were safe when accessing the community beyond our grounds.

“PC Struan has currently been out for a week and has already had a huge impact on the speed of vehicles outside of the school.

“I am a huge believer that every one of our pupils has the right to access our wider community and to be safe while doing so.

“Hopefully together, with PC Struan alongside, we can achieve this.”