Letters to the Editor

at an appalling level'

SIR, -The issue of speeding on Bolling Road and local responses seem to have generated much comment in recent weeks.

On the one hand residents are rightly disturbed about excessive speed, whilst on the other, users of this B classified road, including those who generally observe the 30mph limit, are offended by what appears to be a presumptuous outbreak of vigilantism.

In reality the problem is merely one of very many which may be attributed to citizen frustration with the appalling level of under-resourcing of our police, who, in the eyes of the taxpayer, should be capable of effective crime prevention and law enforcement.

But the police of England and Wales still number nearly 100,000 fewer than, for example, the police of France, made up of Police Nationale, Gendarmerie, CRS and locally raised and administered Police Municipale units. In the US the ratio of police to population is considerably higher than here in the UK.

Successive governments have persistently under-estimated the need for greater police numbers to deal with a massive growth of police workloads, consisting of high crime rates, anti-social behaviour, including binge drinking, and a host of new problems which have transformed the profile of policing into one dominated by the need for effective, fast response rather than proactive patrol.

Former police officers, like myself, witnessed the start of such a transformation during the 1960s.

Simultaneously overlooked or ignored were the consequences of abandonment of a century-old tradition of solving problems without recourse to the law, coupled with greater scrutiny and control of police discretion.

The need for a vigilant state to monitor and control police activities has led to resource-greedy internal police bureaucracies and time-consuming procedures, with insufficient compensation by way of the large increases in police strengths thereby necessitated.

Doing everything by the book is painfully time-consuming.

During the 1950s almost every road accident led to prosecution for careless driving, but the arrival of mass car ownership made such a policy impractical. Control of driver behaviour by traffic patrol officers thus became all the more important, so little wonder that the most intense dislike of speed cameras is to be found within severely under-staffed police traffic patrol units.

The result of a failure to increase police strengths by more than a piffling three or four thousand constables spread over 47 forces, seems to have led to a greater tendency towards other means of surveillance, creeping authoritarianism, excessive law-making without reference to enforceability and vigilantism, undertaken either by robots (eg speed cameras - despite a general level of inconsistency in deciding appropriate limits) or by local residents, whose own observance of speed limits in other peoples' towns is not thereby guaranteed.

Despite the best efforts of chief police officers aimed at restoring some level of proactive policing, responses to local problems by increasingly remote and over-centralised police units amount, for lack of resources, to little more than demand-led policing by incursion.

Approval of such vigilantism allows governments to get away with cheapskate responses to serious policing problems, with vigilantes assuming the role of unwitting accessories.

In the meantime, with a mayoral system like that in France, there would already be pinch points in Bolling Road.

These would be surmounted by small trees in large tubs, or a narrow raised central reservation planted with flowers which could only be appreciated by slowing down.

Having been overtaken on Bolling Road by a silver-haired granny doing about 50mph in a Honda Jazz, I still appreciate residents' concerns.

KEITH HUNTER

39, Moorfield Road,

Ben Rhydding,

Ilkley.

Road protest

SIR, - Recently an elderly person was almost knocked down by a car travelling beyond the right speed limit in Wells Road, Ilkley (about 60mph).

May I appeal for cars not to be parked on both sides of the road where visibility is impossible. Do we wait for someone to be killed before action is taken? Let us protest.

R M YOUNG (Miss)

Grove House, Abbeyfields,

Riddings Road,

Ilkley.

Cycle track

SIR, - I am astonished at the attitude of Addingham councillors taken against the Sustrans proposal to create a cycle track along the old railway line.

Surely the addition of three or four miles to the already extensive network of tracks round Addingham cannot add to or create parking chaos in the village.

This is not a major tourist attraction; merely an idea for an amenity which will encourage people to take healthy exercise in our beautiful countryside, away from their cars.

This plan should be encouraged. Good luck to David Hall.

MIDGE LEATHER

Woodlands,

Panorama Drive,

Ilkley.

Thank you

SIR, - I would like, through your newspaper, to thank the two gentlemen 'Good Samaritans' who helped me on the evening of Sunday, May 29, when I fell and broke my leg whilst walking my dogs near Big Meadow Drive in Addingham.

I didn't ask their names at the time, but thanks to their efforts I and the dogs were taken home safely. My leg is now in plaster and I am on the mend.

Thank you both.

Peter Whitehead

8 Broadfield Way,

Addingham.

White lines

SIR, - Am I alone in holding great concern in respect of the lack of white lines at many of the junctions in Ilkley?

Indeed, outside your own offices the wording on the street indicating 'one-way' is almost obliterated, and one can hardly blame motorists who inadvertently but nevertheless regularly drive down Wells Road. An accident will happen and this issue should be addressed as a matter of early course.

COLIN WIGGERSTAFF

18, The Coppice,

Ilkley.

Right to vote

SIR, - With the resounding 'no's from France and Holland, is our local Member of Parliament preparing to support our right to vote on the EU's constitution?

And if so, what action is he going to take?

W Jacques

30 Coppy Road,

Addingham.

No response with intelligence

SIR, - Re speed and other police issues in Ilkley (accident.studies@leeds.gov.uk)., the recorded injury accidents on Bolling Road are as follows:

Since January 1, 1998, there have been seven accidents, all of slight severity. The causation factors were - Misjudged speed and distance, 2 (can be associated with excessive speed); inexperienced driver, 2; driving too close, 1; injudicious emergence from a junction, 1.

For the whole of West Yorkshire, the factors of excessive speed and misjudged speed and distance together account for 20 per cent of the total.

I support Robin Wright and hundreds of others regarding the issue of hand-held speed guns, particularly in the hands of self-appointed volunteers. I am against. They are a real nuisance and antagonistic to the ordinary, law-abiding driver.

In many parts of the country there are illuminative lights, which light up at quite a distance before the driver approaches the spot, reminding the driver if driving faster than the speed limit; very effective.

It is easy when in relaxation mode sat in a garden by a road, to assume that even cars droning past at 30 miles per hour are speeding.

Most people have no choice but to drive to work. I require a car to be able to do my job as a supply teacher. I am on the road daily, trying to reach schools at last minute notice, on the Lancashire border, Harrogate or south of both cities. For many people public transport is not an option.

It has come to my notice, on two recent occasions, that these speed guns have been in operation without a prior sign, easily visible to the driver, which is illegal. This matter I shall in the future take to a higher authority.

The only sensible place where I think speed cameras might have a place is on Manor bends, due to a catalogue of fatal accidents. Even a policeman I was talking to said the speed cameras all the way down to Horsforth are an unnecessary nuisance, and the speed bumps at Burley Woodhead are dangerous, as a driver has to slow down on a blind bend.

The problem with Ilkley is that nothing seems to be responded to with intelligence. Only those who have lived elsewhere or drive more widely, see Ilkley as the bottleneck of car fumes that it really is. On my journey to work it can take me 20 minutes to cross Ilkley; the traffic-calming measures of numerous traffic lighting systems is causing endless build up of traffic, hence more pollution.

The answer is staring everyone in the face and that is a bypass. If North Wales can blast and tunnel through rock using innovative technology to build a bypass underground and Birmingham can do the same, so could Ilkley. Or a culvert in set-a-side land at the back of Middleton could be another sensible solution.

I stepped out of a shop recently to witness a huge lorry mount the pavement at the bottom of Brook Street, travelling in the Skipton Road direction.

It would be more appropriate to catch those who are seriously speeding, for the police to introduce their speed vans occasionally, as in other areas. This would save the much reduced police resourcing for more serious issues such as drug dealing behind factories in Keighley and on the streets of Ilkley; vandalism of cars and property in this area; the use of white girls for prostitution rings in Keighley; violence and anti-social behaviour in the early hours in Ikley (the local police are very active regarding this issue); theft and vandalism.

H NEWMAN

1B, Railway Road,

Ilkley.