DETECTIVE Superintendent Ray Mallon tried zero tolerance in Middlesbrough. The criminals hated it. The public loved it as it allowed them to walk the streets in safety (which is more than you can do in Blackburn). What happened? A complaint was made against Mr Mallon who eventually resigned after being suspended for over two years.

Now, zero tolerance has been brought in to Lancashire. But this time against a much softer option -- the motorist. Following a fact-finding tour of Australia, the then Chief Constable, Pauline Clare, introduced it here.

The government and police have embraced this concept of cameras doing the job of a traffic department. It is a question of economies -- traffic officers cost lots of money, yet cameras are veritable money-makers, with minimal outlay.

Lots of emotive language is being used and in some cases, downright misleading information is being given.

Mr A Emberton of Lancashire Constabulary's central ticket office (Letters, May 9) talks of seeing bodies, mutilations and injuries on a daily basis, like he is suddenly an expert on traffic management.

But I served on a traffic group for over 20 years and I reported the accidents that he can only have seen on film. Many of these accidents, fatal and otherwise, were not speed-related, but involved other factors.

I would ask Superintendent David Mallaby (Letters, May 7) to answer the following questions:

If the police would 'rather not prosecute motorists for speeding,' why are speeder vans parked on Barbara Castle Way and Preston New Road in Blackburn 'trying not to prosecute motorists' at nine o'clock at night?

Motorists who travel between 31-34 mph are allegedly warned. Are any of these paying fines in the erroneous belief that they have been 'reported'?

Finally, what happens when everyone does 30mph and accidents are still happening -- do you drop the speed limit to 25 or 20 mph or less? People caught doing 35mph have an 'option.' Instead of paying a £60 fine and receiving with three penalty points, they can pay £95 and attend a speed awareness course, with no points. Most drivers need to protect their licences. So the above does smack of 'coercion' or worse?

This whole system is a cobbled-up, knee-jerk reaction to rising accident rates without using the proper tools for the job -- a trained traffic department, of which I was once proud to be a member.

In those distant days traffic men stopped speeders and reported them face to face and attended accidents, even non-injury ones. We are all interested in road safety and despite the above, I believe in speed enforcement, but not at the levels being used now, nor in the manner applied.

Driving in the jungle of Blackburn is depressing. We have road humps, narrowing, obstructions in the middle of the road, all designed to slow traffic. It is time the roads were reinstated and redesigned so that traffic can move, because that is the purpose of roads.

Sensible speed limits will be obeyed by the majority and the remainder should be dealt with by a proper traffic department, not by criminalising motorists with this draconian zero tolerance.

You reported (LET, June 14) that 48 new cameras are coming on line, with more to follow, so that by the end of 2004, there will be 320 cameras in Lancashire. What a wonderful thought!

The speed awareness courses operate at present with two classes of 10 people per day each paying £95, that is just short of £2,000 per week and equates to roughly £100,000 per annum. Where does this money finish up? Does it go to the police, local councils or government?

PAUL DIXON, Branch Road, Mellor Brook.