AS someone who makes regular journeys on our local roads, my attention was caught by your headline on the front page last week.

First of all I would like to endorse the views quoted from parents and Milton Abbot villagers — from my observation they are absolutely correct. Twice in the last 12 months whilst driving at 30mph I've been overtaken between Milton Abbot and the school and frequently suffer harassment from impatient drivers much too close behind me.

Nevertheless whilst the situation is not good in Milton Abbot I believe it to be much worse in Lamerton. In the mornings I see school children walking along a road with no pavement to protect them with cars and vans comfortably exceeding the speed limit.

One thing needs to be pointed out to car drivers who speed, on the average journey speeding is not going to get you to your destination any sooner it will only achieve higher fuel consumption, more pollution and noise. If you are late for work get out of bed earlier, your poor timekeeping should never be a burden to others!

I believe strongly that we need to enforce speed limits with the utmost vigour over a length of time to change the habits of bad motorists. And the very infrequent visit from highly visible police teams with radar detectors do little good and are expensive to perform.

In three years of regular commuting on these roads I have only seen one police speed trap, that is simply not enough, despite reduction in funding they will have to do more, especially early in the mornings and later in the afternoons.

Perhaps the answer is concealed speed cameras and their funding to be from the fines they gather, this is not a tax on motorists it's a tax on heedless idiots and I'm all for that!

David Perry

via email

THE front page headline last week (Speed cut call by parents) highlighted a problem that exists all over the town, and in most other towns countrywide. Recently, at around 11pm on a Sunday evening, four cars travelled along Plymouth Road in two abreast formation all the way from Drake's roundabout to the town centre, across the pedestrian crossings, and around the wrong side of centre islands at speeds estimated in the region of 70mph.

These same idiots are the ones who can be seen all over the town, driving like fools with no regard for safety and other road users, be they vehicles

or pedestrians. Unfortunately, we do not have any police force to enforce speed limits, and Plymouth Road is one of the roads regularly abused by the silly boy racers who I believe race around a circuit taking in this road, Pixon Lane, Ford Street, West Street and back into town.

The other annoying aspect is that so many of them have modified their exhaust systems to make them resonate very loudly, and with massive sound systems, they can be heard from a long distance away.

The only recourse the public have is to give the registration numbers of the offenders to the police, so that at least they are spoken to and warned.

R C Blake

Tavistock

Anyone who has driven through Spain or Portugal will tell you they have a very simple, but effective means of slowing down traffic entering a village.

A speed sensing traffic light stays green if approaching vehicles are within the speed limit, if not, it changes to amber then red, bringing traffic to a halt. After a few seconds, it goes green again. Traffic in the opposite direction is not stopped as it will already have been monitored when entering the village from the other direction.

Simple, as the components exist in daily use, and effective, as most drivers approach traffic lights with caution, whether they are speed-sensitive or not, in case they change.

Some time ago, I read that our Transport Ministry will not consider adopting this continental practice. If Milton Abbot is involving our MP, perhaps he could be persuaded to lobby the Minister.

Jeff Castrey

via email