Having recently moved down from Northampton to the Sand Bay area of Kewstoke, after more than 55 years away , I was interested to read about the toll road debate, and the associated thoughts on speeding drivers.

Having recently moved down from Northampton to the Sand Bay area of Kewstoke, after more than 55 years 'away', I was interested to read about the toll road debate, and the associated thoughts on speeding drivers.

As I understand it, local residents feel that a re-introduction of the 'toll' would greatly reduce the number of drivers speeding through Kewstoke village.

While I am personally neither for nor against this, I'd just like to mention a couple of interesting facts:

Having worked professionally for Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) for more than 30 years, including a lot of dealings with the NCC highways and planning departments, and various dealings with a number of villages, the subject of 'drivers speeding' through one village or another often came up.

It was a widely-held view - often backed-up by hard evidence I believe - that the majority of motorists seen habitually speeding in a village tend to actually live in that village, or close nearby.

I've lived here for nearly four months now, and in that time I'm sad to say a large percentage of all the cars which have roared up behind me at excessive speed in the village, tailgated in poor driving conditions, driven without lights in poor or bad visibility, or simply not bothered to signal a turn, have almost certainly been driven by locals, or their visitors.

How do I know? Because being self-employed and working from home here in Kewstoke, I get to see the same cars belting along, and pulling into and out of the same roads day in and day out, and parking at the same properties each time

Have I got nothing better to do with my time?

Of course I have - but I think that those locals who feel that the re-introduction of a toll will reduce speeding need to look a little closer to home.

JOHN LILES

Crookes Lane, Kewstoke