SAIRA Khan makes a number of assertions.

She claims: "There is overwhelming evidence from around the country that safety cameras save lives."

The fact of the matter is that there is no clear-cut, unambiguous body of evidence that speed cameras have actually saved a single life.

Indeed there is no evidence whatsoever that speed cameras have achieved anything other than raise an enormous amount of revenue for both the Camera Partnership and the Government and provide gainful employment for a new tier of civilian and police enforcement officers.

It is a matter of record that the Wiltshire and Swindon Partnership is currently advertising for enforcement staff under the management of a police chief superintendent.

As a motorist who drives over 50,000 miles per year, I welcome any initiative to apprehend dangerous drivers and to take off the roads vehicles which are not roadworthy.

The way to do this is by having police patrols, that is officers who can tell the difference between a motorist erring over the limit and a motorist driving dangerously. The latter is ignored by a camera even though dangerous and reckless drivers are more likely to be involved in an accident.

The problem with cameras is that they are set to achieve a single objective catch as many people as possible who are speeding over a short stretch of the highway, having no interest in whether the motorist was driving in excess of the limit prior to or subsequent to passing the camera site.

Your correspondent R J Harvey rightly points out that we should not break the law. The Wiltshire and Swindon Camera Partnership claim their primary concern is excess speed, that's conceptualisation of the highest order.

Senior police officers from the Metropolitan Commissioner down are beginning to express serious misgivings about the siting and use of speed cameras I suggest Ms Khan should temper any other claim to justify the existence of speed cameras on the grounds of safety until the availability of real and incontestable facts, rather than anecdotal evidence supported by supposition and opinion.

DES MORGAN

Caraway Drive