I HAD to smile at the remarks of County Councillor Richard Toon, chairman of Lancashire's Highways and Transportation Committee (Letters, July 2) which attacked newly-elected independent councillor in Hyndburn, Adrian Shurmer.

Coun Toon accused Coun Shurmer of jumping in, in ignorance, to stop well-thought-out road safety schemes. I would like to point out to Coun Toon that he is the one who is ignorant - which seems to come as second nature to Labour politicians at all levels.

For Coun Toon's information, Coun Shurmer stood on one platform in May - against a former chairman of the Highways committee at County Hall, George Slynn - which was on traffic calming.

If this had been a boxing match, the referee would have stopped the contest in the first round to save George further punishment. Coun Shurmer is a former traffic policeman with many years' service and is now a traffic safety consultant. Maybe it would be an idea if the County Council employed Coun Shurmer to give them much-needed advice. Bad drivers should not be tackled by putting obstacles in their way, this only exacerbates the problem. There are far better ways of dealing with drivers with heavy right feet - namely, to remove money from their wallets and take away their licences.

For Coun Toon's information the scheme which has been put on hold in Church was not done by Coun Shurmer, but with his support by the ruling Conservative Council. I for one could not understand this scheme being mooted in the first place as every time I use this road it's usually grid-locked.

JOHN D FARRER, Mallard Place, Oswaldtwistle.

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