I WAS aware of the situation on the Grane Road, but recognise the very important role that the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and other media has in pressing for action on the Grane road.

We agreed the introduction of the new speed limits, which I have promised will be put in place with the minimum delay.

I am pleased that Lancashire Constabulary will now be better able to take enforcement action. I would hope that they will be employing one of the three laser speed cameras bought by the county council along Grane Road.

The direction road signs, to dissuade HGVs from taking a short cut, are designed and in the process of being manufactured.

With regard to the other measures, these are being consulted upon and we will include any good ideas from local people, provided they are likely to be effective.

With regard to the use of the limited budgets, which the Belthorn Residents' Association has commented on, we do target these very carefully and very precisely across Lancashire at known accident blackspots.

Regrettably, there is a fatality on average at least each week in the county, with about 20 or 30 people suffering injuries which require hospital treatment every single day.

For that reason, I would be very pleased if the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and others would mount a campaign to help the county council and Lancashire Constabulary to enable the Victoria Initiative to be introduced.

We feel that this will have a very dramatic impact on what are quite terrible tragedies day in and day out in Lancashire. Finally, I am sorry that some misinformation, which has recently been put out by one councillor, about an initiative to introduce electronic information systems on to Lancashire roads, has been misrepresented to the public.

The funds for these studies have been ring fenced, not by the county council, but by those bodies providing them. We could not spend them directly on Grane Road. Yet the potential for such systems does include road safety.

If there is good practice and proven systems anywhere in the world, whether it be road safety initiatives from Victoria in Australia, or information technology from Toronto in Canada, then I think that the people of Lancashire would expect me to draw on this expertise and apply it locally.

COUNTY COUNCILLOR RICHARD TOON, Chairman, highways and transport committee.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.