CAMERA MANIA: James Luckhurst’s article last week (Hello, who’s in charge of this bloody motorway?) prompted me to wonder whether there is a connection between matrix signs and the variable speed limit cameras on the M25. If there is a connection and the variable speed signs display the wrong limit because of faulty sensors, drivers who have been, or are to be, prosecuted in such circumstances may have a right of appeal.

In my view the police service is being driven down a policy route that does too little to catch dangerous drivers, fails to target persistent offenders and is unduly influenced by speed. The gradual reduction in the number of traffic officers and the focus of the service being set on violent and street crime fails to recognise that there are more deaths and life-changing injuries caused by road accidents than murder and serious assault.

What is needed is fewer speed cameras, more traffic police and a proper recognition of the skill and importance of their work. These are my personal views and not those of the service.

Phil Flower, Detective Chief Superintendent, Metropolitan police

WHERE WERE THE POLICE? On June 9 my wife and I were involved in an ugly incident in our north London chemist, when I tried to stop a person blatantly stealing goods. He ran from the shop with me in pursuit. I soon stopped realising there was nothing I could do. He then came after me and my wife in the street, goading me to fight him.

In the half-mile shopping road and within the time scale of approximately 10 minutes, nobody saw one policeman or a “community officer”. We did, however, see no fewer than five parking wardens, two on scooters. It must be very reassuring to know that we can be threatened (by a thief) with impunity, but God forbid we try to park on a yellow line.

Name and address supplied

ANOTHER FINE MESS: Nationwide road pricing, proposed by the latest transport guru Alistair Darling, is a prime example of the bureaucrats being led by the nose by the technocrats. It will be another monstrous IT fiasco to be paid for by the taxpayer.

Notwithstanding the wonders of satellite technology, this initiative like so many before it — child support and social services — will be another technoflop. A huge bureaucracy and countless untraceable journeys, or journeys made by “phantom” vehicles, will result.