MOTORISTS have been urged to drive along all roads as carefully as they would their own.

Road safety officials believe many drivers are careful on their own street - but they tend to put their foot down on other residential roads.

West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership community liaison manager Philip Gwynne said: "If you don't speed in your own neighbourhood, please don't speed in someone else's."

The plea is backed by adverts and publicity posters with the slogan Slower Speeds Mean Safer Streets For Everyone in the worst-affected suburbs.

Mr Gwynne said the partnership - made up of the five major councils in West Yorkshire, including Kirklees - gets regular requests from people, neighbourhood groups and community associations to install speed cameras in their areas, to catch motorists flouting the limit and putting lives at risk.

He added: "Residents recognise the benefit and effectiveness of cameras as a deterrent to would-be speeders and as a means of making the roads and communities alongside them safer and better places to be.

"But Government rules for where cameras can be placed are very strict and mean we are often not allowed to install cameras.

"This campaign is an alternative way to help residents, by reminding motorists there is no need to speed in the suburbs."

Partnership chairman Steve Thornton said: "The fact is that while drivers will respect their own neighbours by driving slower, they lose sight of the fact that when they're commuting they're driving past someone else's home, school, shops or place of work.

"This new campaign is designed to make them realise that it's not just a route to work. It's a neighbourhood that deserves the same respect as they give their own."