A PENSIONER is stepping up his campaign against a speed hump at the end of his garden.

In November Hugh Hamilton, 67, featured in the Advertiser wearing a specially-made T-shirt with the words "Have you got the hump with Swindon Council?"

Now the retired toolmaker from Covingham has set up a website cataloguing the history of his dispute with the council in his latest bid to have the long hump, known as a speed table, removed from Kingfisher Drive.

The road is at the bottom of the garden at his home in St Katherine's Green, where he has lived for 31 years.

As well as mounting a petition and writing numerous letters to Swindon Council he made a cardboard tombstone last May, which he sat next to the table as part of his campaign to get it removed.

In nearby Covingham Drive the council removed 20 small speed humps in 2004 and introduced vehicle activated signs instead to highlight the 20mph speed limit.

He said: "I'm concerned that our house is being rattled to its foundations and it could be causing damage.

"The number of lorries has increased recently and it wakes me up in the morning. Why should we have to put up with something like that?

"I intend to hold the council responsible for any damage and stress-related illness. I used to be a happy-go-lucky sort of bloke but this has got under my skin."

He said he had set up the website so that he could express his views about how the problem has been handled by Swindon Council.

He said: "We've been ridden roughshod over."

His wife Cherie, 63, a retired laboratory technician, said: "We're not against speed humps, just against this big speed table. It's unnecessary as there's a roundabout only a few yards away."

Mr Hamilton's neighbour Neil Vizard is backing the campaign.

He said: "I'm 110 per cent behind him. It's a horrendous problem.

"The sooner the council say they intend to monitor it, the better it will be for everybody.

"At the moment everyone's appeals are falling on deaf ears."

Mr Vizard, 35, a Honda leading associate, works shifts and says his sleep is disturbed.

"At about 1.45 every morning a seven-and-a-half tonne Royal Mail van goes over the hump and the house shakes like we're in an earthquake."

Local councillor Glenn Smith (Con, Covingham and Nythe) said: "While I have sympathy for Mr Hamilton I have shown with my successful campaign in Covingham Drive that we have to be mindful of balancing the wishes of residents with concerns over road safety.

"I am keen to look further into the issue, particularly with his comments on council officers behaving inappropriately."

Council spokesman Richard Freeman said: "Our legal people are studying the site closely."

Mr Hamilton's website can be found at www.got-the-hump.org.uk