WITH reference to the story headed "Tax Collectors in Blue" I must agree wholeheartedly with Mr Earle's comments about the disgusting way Blackpool police are persecuting local drivers.

It is indeed very dangerous to have "zero tolerance" and in most people's opinion quite unnecessary. As Mr Earle pointed out, when the speed limit was reduced in the 1970s the accident rate during that period almost doubled overnight.

It only takes a child to run out into the road in front of a car to prove the point. With a constant eye checking the speedometer while also looking for speed traps a fatality is almost certain to happen before long -- and the driver will NOT be speeding.

Confidence in the police must now have hit an all time low. Conversations overheard in public, pubs, clubs and even supermarkets hold no respect now for the boys in blue. What a sad and sorry state to be in. I hope the chief constable takes not of this.

People who used to be law abiding residents are now placed in the same category as boy racers, fined with points on their licence for maybe only 2pmh over the speed limit. To do this in any other town would almost certainly lead to rioting these days. Doesn't that prove something, that the residents of the Fylde are NOT hardened criminals, just a soft and easy target to boost revenue.

Whatever happened to the "zero tolerance" we were promised last year to clean up the hooligans in town?

I think the majority of residents would much rather encounter drivers (unintentionally) exceeding the speed limit than to hear all the obscene and abusive language shouted along the promenade and witness the drinking, fighting and urinating in the street that takes place even throughout the day.

As a point of interest I haven't been fined for speeding so this is not "sour grapes".

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