ROAD safety in Hampshire is about to be revolutionised with the invention of an AutoCone system by a former Basingstoke businessman.

The first AutoCone vehicles could be seen on Hampshire roads by June, when the invention by Brian Flynn is due to be rolled out by Basingstoke-based Raynesway Construction Southern, which has given practical and financial backing to the venture.

Mr Flynn, a Dublin-born sales manager, was the owner-manager of Maplewood Graphics in Basingstoke for seven years, but closed the firm and began working on being an inventor.

It was in a garage in Kings Road, Alton, where he began his experiments to develop AutoCone - a lorry that is computerised to lay out and recover traffic cones automatically rather than manually.

Now working out of an industrial unit in Alton with his brother John, 54-year-old Mr Flynn is close to realising a dream and seeing his AutoCone lorries working on the roads.

He said he was driving along the M3 when he suddenly realised he had the gem of an invention.

"I saw this guy working on a line of cones when it was twilight and raining," said Mr Flynn.

"He was in the stream of traffic and I just thought that was stupid. It has to be one of the most hazardous jobs around."

AutoCone has been designed to revolutionise the world of traffic management. Fitted to the back of a lorry, it sends cones down a conveyor belt system onto the road. When roadworks are completed, the truck can collect them again, eliminating the need for crews to be on foot.

"Men can only cover four miles an hour, but AutoCone can cover five to six miles," explained Mr Flynn.

"Research shows that a single operative laying or collecting traffic cones will normally be lifting up to 20 tonnes in weight in an eight-hour shift when moving road cones manually off a conventional trailer."

Even when he had the original idea, there was still a long road ahead, which started with business Link Wessex, where Professor David Nicholas helped to set up a virtual company, and included Southampton Institute, where the prototype was built.

Then there was the procedure of applying for - and winning - thousands of pounds towards feasibility studies and research and development.

It was at this stage that Raynesway Construction Southern, which has its headquarters in Winklebury, came on board with £50,000 for research work and an option to buy the first 10 machines.

Raynesway has more than 1,600 staff managing and maintaining country and trunk roads as well as motorway networks in Hampshire, Surrey, North Yorkshire, Worcestershire and Bedfordshire.

Managing director John Jackson said: "Our systems for satellite tracking, works order management and the capture and exchange of contract data have increased productivity and reduced costs.

"We are constantly investing in our core operations, including state-of-the-art vehicles, new handling methods and safety initiatives."

Setting out traffic cones is just one of the many hazards that Raynesway operational staff face every day on the UK roads.

Mr Jackson added: "The safety of the public and our workforce, together with innovation, are at the heart of everything RCS does on the road network.

"We are investing significantly into helping Brian Flynn develop an automated cone-laying machine, which we believe will reduce accidents and be a great success."

In January, Mr Flynn started a software course to program the computer for AutoCone.

He said: "This forms the brain of the machine. The holy grail is the taper.

"If you can't handle the taper, you shouldn't be looking at creating a cone-laying system."

The BBC is making a fly-on-the-wall documentary on AutoCone and, last year, Mr Flynn scooped the Excelsior Trophy from the British Inventors Society for the International Invention of the Year 2004.