A DETERMINED drive is evidently on to slow motorists down, with threats of zero police tolerance and fines for drivers doing just 1 mph over the limit while councils gear up to use new powers to impose 20 mph restrictions and more traffic calming in towns and on housing estates. At the same time rural campaigners are pressing for 40 mph limits on country roads.

But, if the essence of all this is better safety, ministers, police chiefs and councillors must set about it carefully and get the motorists on their side.

Otherwise they may risk a political backlash from drivers who believe car-owners are too frequently a target.

This should be seen by motorists as a positive drive, not a punitive one.

As county chiefs prepare to use new rights to introduce lower speed limits without government permission, it should be recognised that where new 20 mph zones have been introduced, accidents involving children have fallen by more than two-thirds - though it seems this impact is best achieved when it is coupled with traffic-calming and police enforcement.

Similarly, just as opinion-poll evidence overwhelmingly confirms, few would, in general, contest the call today by the Council for the Protection of Rural England for the speed limit on some country roads to be cut from 60 mph to 40 mph.

But where the potential for a backlash lies is in the imposition of these measures on what motorists see as an over-prescriptive blanket basis - and was not just that outlook the one that behind the dissent shown by voters in the last council elections in Hyndburn? When these measures are taken, it is vital that the necessity for them is not in dispute.

Thus, the introduction of 20 mph zones should only follow after detailed public consultation involving both residents and road users has shown a clear desire for them and when accidents statistics suggest a clear need.

Similarly, wholesale imposition of 40 mph limits on country roads would provoke a reaction against the officiousness of such a step whereas acceptance would be much more likely if the limits were imposed only on the stretches of rural roads where speeds of up to 60 mph would be clearly unsafe.

Therefore, it is with a blend of consultation, selectivity and common sense that the government, police and councils should go - and not just with a view to lowering speeds.

They would do well to examine raising the present 70 mph limit on motorways, particularly in view of the vast improvements in the safety of vehicles since it was imposed.

And ministers and police chiefs risk further harming their relationship with drivers as they toy with swatting the 31 mph "speeders" with penalty points and fines.

The fact is that Britain's roads are among the safest in the world - our death toll is half that of America, Spain and France and only Sweden and Iceland, with their small populations, have fewer road deaths per head of population, and the numbers killed on our roads are the lowest since records began in 1926.

A zero tolerance purge has to be shown to be necessary or it will be seen as a bid by the police to collect millions of pounds in fines revenue from a soft target - when there are far worse crimes deserving such zeal.

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