I ONCE wrote here that the only good thing about Blackburn was the road leading out of it. Well, I have given up. I am leaving, not only leaving the town, but the county. I have had enough.

Enough of a county council declaration that old people in council care homes are now homeless disenfranchised without a thought or care for the surroundings, friends and familiar faces they have grown accustomed to.

What kind of a council do we have that cannot aid the weaker members of our society at the expense of every stupid grandiose scheme that they can come up with?

Enough of the speed cameras and the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety. I suppose they have to do something to justify their existence, but why don't they actually look at the causes of road accidents? Like the inappropriate siting of bus stops; like the traffic-calming schemes which have caused more problems than they have solved; like pedestrian stupidity on roads and, most of all, the increase in accidents caused by drivers' taking their eyes off the road to check the speedometer frequently because they might, just might, be a couple of mph over the limit and the police force, who are now reduced to higher status traffic wardens, might just be aiming their little speedo guns at them?

But will the speeding fine actually stop accidents? No. Will it provide inflated salaries and more speed cameras to inflate the salaries of the partnership? You decide.

An interesting point regarding this in your recent report concerning the new speed restriction for Bull Hill, in Darwen. This is going to be introduced because there have been 76 accidents since 1996, two fatal. That is equal to just over one per month and two fatalities of one every three years.

Twenty-five per cent of the accidents were attributed to speed. Let us reverse the statistic -- 75 per cent were caused by accidents not related to speed. Now, shouldn't the Lancashire quango for road safety be addressing the 75 per cent rather than the 25 per cent? Answer -- the 75 per cent doesn't make money, the 25 per cent would.

Make no mistake, it has nothing at all to do with road safety, but with making money.

Perhaps it is the lighting of the road at night that causes a lot of the problems, but the council can't afford to light it. It would cost £200,000. Yet the council is to spend £220,000 floodlighting the town centre to allow all the drunks, druggies, drop-outs, yobs and general deadbeats to actually see where they are vomiting and who they are hitting with more clarity.

Farewell, Blackburn, farewell Lancashire. You are now governed by a motley crew of age-hating car-haters and I can stand it no longer.

ALAN LIGHTBOWN-WHALLEY, Petre Crescent, Rishton.