Jailed council tax protester Richard North is locked in another run-in with police - days after branding them "as much use as a chocolate fireplace".

Dr North, of Wibsey, Bradford, was stunned when officers called in person with a summons for him to appear in court next week for a speeding offence.

The 55-year-old had only just been released from Armley Jail where Bradford magistrates had sent him for non-payment of his council tax.

He had refused to pay the £78 police precept in protest at levels of burglary, muggings and car crime.

But police delivered by hand the summons to appear in Penrith magistrates next week for an outstanding M6 speeding fine following his daughter's wedding last November.

He stormed: "I couldn't believe it. When you want a police officer on the doorstep they're not there.

"It is the first time I have seen a policeman for months."

He was clocked at 85mph on the M6 last November.

In protest he has sent the summons to West Yorkshire Police Constable Colin Cramphorn with an angry letter.

It says: "It was so very, very, thoughtful of your officer to give me such a big bundle of paperwork which invited me to see the Penrith magistrates on July 12.

"Knowing how much you love paperwork, however, I would hate to deprive you of the bundle your officer left with me, so I am sending it to you to add to your own treasured collection."

He added: "When I see people doing 50mph up Wibsey high street then, of course, I am concerned.

"But I do not think 85mph on a motorway is excessive. Motorists are easy targets. If they charge everyone doing 85mph on a motorway they had better start to empty the jails because there are a lot of us out there."

Dr North spent nine hours of a two-week sentence in Armley Prison before the £1,000 he owed was paid off.

Since he was freed he has set up a website - www. prisonerjw7874.blogspot.com

He says he has had more than 450 hits, received 300 e-mails and strangers have called to congratulate him on his protest.

A Cumbria Police spokesman said a summons would normally be posted but that certain circumstances meant a visit "was appropriate".

He said: "In these circumstances we would ask the local force to attend on our behalf. We would not send officers down to West Yorkshire."