IT seems that not a week goes by without traffic calming, or, more accurately, road safety measures, attracting attention - usually, it has to be said, of an ill-informed, immature and irresponsible kind. I think it is high time that some common sense prevailed.

1. Britain has the highest number of child pedestrian accidents in Western Europe, four times higher than in Italy.

2. Road traffic accidents are the biggest killer of five to 15 year old children. Six children die every day on our roads.

3. No parent would allow their child to wander off with a stranger, yet the risk of a child being killed in a road accident is 50 times greater than the risk of being killed by a stranger.

4. Figures show that where traffic speed is reduced in residential areas from 30mph to 20mph, the number of accidents involving children falls by a staggering 67 per cent.

5. It was the last Conservative government which brought forward legislation to introduce road safety measures.

6. Road safety measures are only ever introduced for one of two reasons: either that a road simply has too many serious accidents, or that local residents have petitioned the council to introduce a scheme in their area. 7. It costs a staggering £3.6 billion dealing with the 3,599 road deaths that occur on our roads each year. This breaks down as costing the taxpayer £1 million for each fatal accident (compensation and insurance, highway repairs, medical treatment, police time etc).

8. Road safety measures reduce the levels of toxins in the environment as cars use less fuel. As one in seven children now suffer from asthma, road safety measures have a vital public health benefit.

These are the facts. As a former professional driver myself, I know the 'humps and bumps' are a nuisance for the vast majority of sensible drivers, but, unfortunately, there are a large minority of idiots on the road who endanger the lives of our children with their reckless driving.

Should we take practical action to address the problem, or should we just hope that these idiots don't kill anyone? Surely a child's life is too precious to gamble with, purely in order to pacify the 'boy racer' element?

As a grandfather, I will not stand by and tolerate children being needlessly injured or killed. And as a councillor, I strongly believe in upholding the council's responsibility to protect public safety.

COUN JOHN WELLS (Labour Group, Hyndburn Borough Council), Leger Street, Accrington.

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