MOTORISTS trying to negotiate the nightmare roadworks on Southampton's Mountbatten Way found they faced a new threat yesterday.

Parked immediately around the bend from the Redbridge Junction with the M271 was a mobile speed camera.

The van - parked on the pavement - was set behind roadworks signs and a short distance from the 30 mph signs that themselves were part hidden by traffic lights.

Drivers using the main route into the city during the evening rush hour last night found themselves faced with the added hazard of breaking vehicles as motorists spotted the trap.

One angry driver told the Daily Echo: " It was appaling. Negotiating that junction where lanes converge is bad enough without having to keep checking your speed and watching for other cars slamming on their brakes.

"It was an obvious trap set up there to raise money. Have they nothing better to do?"

Roadworks started on Mountbatten Way last week and are due to run until September. Parts of the vital dual carriageway have reduced speed limits of just 20mph.

It wasn't known whether the cameras were being operated by Hampshire Police or the Hampshire Safety Camera Partnership.