AS you correctly reported (LET, July 8), Lancashire Constabulary is preparing to hold a summer drink-drive campaign across the county next month.

In your 'Comment' column, you questioned the importance of this kind of police work when weighed against issues such as crime-fighting and drugs enforcement. You are right to pose the question.

It is the view of the police that all of these things are important to protecting the safety of our communities. We have believed this for some time and that is why, during our last drink-drive campaign, we commissioned a major piece of independent research into the views of motorists and the wider public.

This will tell us, in detail, whether the public shares your view that such enforcement is a waste of our resources.

We will be in a position to make the whole of the research report public on July 26. Perhaps at that point we can finally establish whether the Constabulary is the one with the bee in its bonnet or whether, in fact, that is a cap that fits the Lancashire Evening Telegraph!

GILLIAN RADCLIFFE, Corporate Communications Manager, Lancashire Constabulary.

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