A resident has laughed off claims his road is the "shortest in the country with speed bumps" after paying thousands to have them installed - but admits they were a "waste of time and money".

Adrian Kent introduced the drastic measures in a bid to stop drivers hurtling along the 100-metre private street near Tankerton.

He was moved to act after his grandchildren became too scared to play outside and neighbours were repeatedly hit by stones flicked up by cars.

The 65-year-old split the cost with a neighbour to add tarmac and speed bumps between St Swithin's Road and Newton Road - which homeowners are responsible for maintaining.

But the ramps failed to stop motorists from travelling through the 5mph zone at speeds of up to 40mph.

Some have joked about the seemingly excessive measures, with one user posting a picture of the street on a local Facebook group with the caption: "Is the shortest road in the country with speed bumps?"

Another joked: "Must have a councillor living in the street".

Mr Kent was amused by the reaction.

"It's quite funny when you think about it," he said. "Maybe I could enter the Guinness Book of Records."

But another resident jumped to his defence, praising him for taking action.

They said: "We live close-by and have witnessed, prior to these changes to the road layout, two or three occasions where delivery drivers have nearly hit the children from Swalecliffe Primary School as they walk home.

"The road was often used as a cut-through and was becoming more dangerous by the day.

"I can only thank the homeowners for making this safer for the children and other pedestrians at their own expense."

Mr Kent, who moved to the area four years ago, thought motorists would respect it being an unofficial road and drive to its conditions.

"People were happy to tear down it at 30 to 40mph," he said.

"A neighbour's car window was smashed by stones flicking up and some of the stones are quite big.

"We've even had a car transporter through here.

"We moved here in 2018 and by 2019 we thought we would try to do something about it.

"I thought if we were to repair it we would do a permanent surface so we decided to put the bumps down.

"We spoke with the neighbours and they agreed but they weren't interested [in paying]."

Tarmac and speed bumps were installed, but they failed to tackle the issue and Mr Kent admits it was a "waste of time and money".

The final straw came when a cement mixer hit one of the bumps and spilt its load all over the street, leaving Mr Kent with a two-hour cleaning operation.

He then decided to put in planters to block off part of the road, which were introduced 18 months ago after KCC Highways, the fire service and police raised no objections.

The total cost of the work was £8,000.

"It's lovely and quiet now, but the amount of traffic coming down here was quite something before," he added.

"I had the feeling people liked driving on the dirt road - especially the young guys.

"It has given us long-term stability over the road surface and it is safer."