YOUR correspondent Mr R Barber (Letters, May 27), writes that he is convinced that Lancashire motorists are being "persecuted" by speed cameras.

He arrives at this conclusion by virtue of the fact that Lancashire has more static Gatso cameras than some other counties and he goes on to talk about zero tolerance and fairness.

Well, in the interests of fairness, I'd like to take him to task over his comments. Firstly, no one is being persecuted. Speed cameras are there to protect motorists and other road users.

They are sited at accident blackspots to encourage drivers to slow down. It is fact that if you are driving at 35mph when you should be driving at 30mph, you are twice as likely to kill someone as your vehicle needs an extra 21 feet to stop. It's as simple as that. So why feel sorry for motorists breaking the speed limit?

I can assure Mr Barber that no motorist in Lancashire has ever been prosecuted for driving at 33mph or 34mph in a 30mph zone.

New thresholds for people caught speeding mean that in a 30mph zone, prosecution is now only automatic at 38mph, when previously it was at 36mph. You see, there was never zero tolerance.

Instead, under the previous policy, motorists caught speeding at 35mph in a 30mph zone were offered the opportunity to attend a speed awareness course as an alternative to a fine and penalty points -- something which will now be made available to those caught driving at 36mph and 37mph.

Mr Barber is right that Lancashire has more speed cameras than some other counties, but again, the reason for this is very simple. The Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety is one of the country's largest and longest established partnerships of its kind.

Certain areas were selected as "test" areas and Lancashire was one of them. The partnership has therefore had longer than some of its peers to install cameras at its accident blackspots, but the others are set to catch up because, whatever Mr Barber thinks, cameras do work.

New national data shows a 35 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or seriously hurt where cameras have been erected and considering that Department of Transport rules insist that there must have been four deaths or serious accidents within a camera's one kilometre vicinity, this equates to a lot of casualties saved.

The Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety is not a campaign but a long-term commitment to making fundamental changes in the public's attitude towards speeding and other aspects of road safety.

I hope this helps Mr Barber think twice when it comes to choosing his allegiances in future.

LINDA SANDERSON, Communications Manager, Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety, Preston.