DRIVERS caught persistently breaking the speed limit by Hampshire residents will be targeted by traffic cops, it has emerged.

Yesterday, the volunteers who will 'catch' their neighbours speeding and report them to the police posed for photographs.

The residents will jot down the numberplates of speeding motorists flashed by an electronic sign.

If warning letters are ignored, police will try to catch the offenders using laser speed guns.

Police also refused to rule out keeping the details of speeding motorists gathered by residents during a 12-month trial known as Community Speed Watch.

The crackdown, launched yesterday in Lyndhurst, will see residents stand by an electronic sign that records the speed of passing cars.

The SID (Speed Indicating Device) is intended to encourage drivers to slow down.

The Association of British Drivers has warned that community relations could be harmed because residents will be reporting their neighbours.

However, highways chiefs stressed they will follow strict rules and training, and be told to "walk away from any confrontation".

Volunteers wearing high-visibility clothes will stand in pairs for up to two hours and note details of speeding motorists passing the SID.

The sign will flash the correct speed limit at offenders and alert the volunteers to reach for their notebooks.

It will not take pictures but will record data from all passing traffic. Warning letters will be sent to motorists only if they are caught by the volunteers.

A second, "final" notice, will be issued before police consider using speed guns.

Ernie Sage, of the road safety team, said the trial could lead to traffic calming measures, but ruled out fixed speed cameras without casualties.

"We hope to change the behaviour of drivers in the county so we won't need this equipment," he said.

Police sergeant Mike Streeter added: "A lot of the drivers will be local and they can get complacent over the limits. We want to remind them for the safety of those living here."

Parish Council chairman George Bisson, one of ten volunteers, said: "It's made a huge difference already."