I DON'T normally have anything good to say about North Somerset Council, but I must confess their recent announcement about cutting the funding

I DON'T normally have anything good to say about North Somerset Council, but I must confess their recent announcement about cutting the funding of the speed camera partnership did manage to arouse at least two and a half hearty cheers. People in general recognise it all as nothing more than another example of hidden taxation dressed up in another guise. The speed camera lot, of course, immediately started up with their customary bleating about how this would endanger lives, even though the facts have never justified this claim. After all, if speed cameras contribute to that extent to road safety, surely from the time that they were first installed, deaths and injuries on the roads should have dwindled dramatically. Contrary to everything that they claim, not only have deaths and injuries NOT gone down, they have actually risen and are still rising. Fact. Just remember the figures show speed is actually the direct cause of accidents in only around three per cent, it may even be four per cent or five per cent but no more, of cases. That's the real figures, when the spin has been removed. Police drivers cause more than that, and I don't notice them being taken off the road. And furthermore, which statistically are the safest roads in Britain in the sense of the number of miles driven and the number of vehicles on the road compared to the numbers of death and injuries? Motorways. And which are the fastest roads in Britain? Motorways.ROGER DEELEY - Uphill Way, Uphill