A BELOVED cat has become the third killed by speeding drivers in recent months, and its owners have warned “it could be a child next.”

Karen Hillier, 38, and her son Shane McSweeney, 16, have launched an impassioned plea for speed humps to be installed in Mill Green Road, WGC.

And this week neighbours and councillors have spoken of the “boy racers” who plague the area, which is near to three schools.

Ms Hillier said: “It’s a load of boy racers late at night on their scooters.

“My son is absolutely devastated he has lost his cat again.”

She added: “We have lost three cats on this road in the past year, killed outright, outside our house. None of the cars have stopped.

“It’s only a matter of time before it’s a child.”

She has set up a group on Facebook called ‘Mill Green Road should have Speed Humps’ which has attracted a number of responses supporting the call.

Chloe Mann, 32, who also lives in the road, told the WHT: “They do whizz past pretty quickly, and it does get busy down here.”

She added: “You always get them. You can hear them coming from a mile off as they go up and down.”

Borough and county councillor Malcolm Cowan said: “It became obvious to me a couple of years ago that speeding had become a problem in the area.

“I asked the police to carry out speed checks but we still have the problem.

“There are too many people going too fast without consideration to others living in the area.”

Cllr Cowan called for residents to get a petition together in the hope of forcing highways chiefs to consider the traffic calming measures.

He added he would “be happy” to take up their cause.

Fellow councillor Louise Lotz said: “I support the ‘twenty is plenty’ campaign, which advocates driving no more than 20mph near a school.”

A spokesman for Hertfordshire Highways said: “We appreciate residents’ concerns about speeding on this road and are currently conducting a study into collisions in the area to see whether speeding has contributed to these incidents.”