REGARDING your report (LET, June 30) on the road accidents in Abbey Village, the Comment section in that issue asked why no speed camera had been installed at this so-called accident blackspot.

The answer is simple -- not enough motorists use this road to make it profitable to install a camera. As these electronic Gestapo units cost £30,000 each, it makes sense in today's profit-obsessed world to spend that sort of money where you will get a better return for your investment.

Remember, these hated instruments are not primarily for road safety, but merely cash generators for the local authority/constabulary.

I have driven and ridden along the Belmont road many times and tend to find that the vast majority of users travel at or below the 60mph limit. Therefore, not enough cash would be generated to justify the installation.

Far better and much more profitable to spend the £30,000 on a camera for a busy urban road, where motorists are far more likely to exceed a 30mph limit than on a rural road where the speed limit is higher than the speed at which most people would actually travel.

Of course, I'm sure the car-hating, tree huggers who infest our local authority will fall back on their usual solution -- reduce the speed limit to a ludicrously low level and, hey presto! you have a road with sufficient profit potential to warrant the installation of the dreaded unit.

PAUL ATHERTON, Wythburn Avenue, Cherry Tree, Blackburn.