SOMEONE on the council has the mistaken idea that vehicles are rushing through Darwen on the A666 at speed, but the volume of traffic on a road dictates the speed of the vehicles on it.

The roads in and around Darwen have not changed since horse and cart days. Narrowing the A666 by placing bollards in the centre of the road, marking off and encouraging the parking of motor vehicles does not protect the public or prevent accidents.

Parked vehicles hide pedestrians from drivers and reducing of the road space for vehicles gives them less chance of avoiding accident injuries.

I am sure that there are no more accidents on the A666 between Moss Bridge and Darwen centre than there were 30 years ago, when the large increase in vehicle traffic is taken into consideration.

Duckworth Street was once a two-way street and was made one-way to assist traffic flow. Now vehicles of up to 38 tons have less space than that allocated for parked vehicles and a cycle track.

Councillors Sue Reid, Dave Smith and Dave Hollings (Letters, May 13) apparently agreed with the traffic-calming, yet it is not long since Coun Smith was complaining about how long it now takes to travel to Blackburn.

Two of these councillors are drivers, but what experience have they of driving HGVs or vehicles other than cars?

It takes experience and skill to negotiate roads that are already too narrow for the volume of traffic using them. The needs of these vehicles should be recognised.

Your correspondent, Adrian Shurmer, is right when he says we need more driver education, not obstacle courses.

I would add that pedestrian education is also required.

W KENNEDY, Tockholes Road, Darwen.

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