"BRASSED-OFF resident" (Letters, Nov 26) complains about the Home Zone work on the Victoria Estate in Whitefield. His reaction shows why the work is necessary.

The "pinch points" will reduce traffic to single file and slow it down. The purpose is to improve road safety particularly for children and give the estate back to the people who live there.

As for emergency vehicles not being able to get through; the scheme has been designed with the needs of access for waste collection vehicles in mind and they are at least as wide as emergency service vehicles.

And last but not least, the council did not impose the scheme. The people of the estate were consulted at every stage and the scheme reflects the preferences they expressed.

In response to Community Warden (Letters, Dec 2) I agree that the community wardens have been a great success and have been widely appreciated and I am sorry that the Government funding is coming to an end. The additional contributions made by the council and Rivers Housing Association from housing rents are proposed to be spent instead on estate caretaking services.

To have continued the warden service would have required substantial extra funding from council tax. What we are hopeful of getting, however, is an increase in the number of police community support officers who perform a similar function but with some powers that wardens do not have.

COUNCILLOR

DEREK BODEN