OF the 14 letters on the issue which, according to my count, you have published since April 29, 11 were severely critical of the present policy of the Lancashire Constabulary regarding the enforcement of the speed limit, and three were supportive of it.

Of these, one was from Superintendent David Mallaby, whose views (Letters, May 7), however one-sided, were expressed with a moderation lacking in that of Mr A Emberton, the manager of the Central Ticket Office in Blackburn (Letters, May 9), who, in a tone more appropriate to the demented air raid warden in Dad's Army, told us how much he relished his job.

For the third writer, Mr Dave Taylor (Letters, April 30), who told of his first-hand experience of a tragic accident, I have every sympathy. People sometimes express the view that even one death is too many, and they are right. One accident is also one too many.

For that reason, I consider that all the publicity about setting a target of a reduction of so much per cent in road deaths is nonsense. We don't want any accidents and any deaths at all.

But the vital question is how accidents are to be reduced. I am among those who believe that the solution lies elsewhere than in prosecuting motorists for safely, and I repeat, safely driving at 35 mph. My clean licence has recently been besmirched as the result of an anonymous police constable taking a pot-shot at me with his radar gun. I do not think it worth an extra £35 to attend a course at which I shall be told how wicked it is of me to hurtle along the road at what, at the time, seemed to me to be an entirely harmless speed.

This is not to suggest that I consider myself beyond reproach as a driver. I would like to report, however, that two or three weeks ago, I was driving along a road where many children were coming home from school. I kept my speed low -- 25 mph or less -- and so, when a girl of about 10 years-old dashed across the road in front of me in order to join friends on the other side, I stopped pretty well instantaneously, despite what the Highway Code has to say about stopping distances.

However, I get no credit for matching my speed to circumstances. When I was driving at 35 mph, there wasn't a child, or indeed, a pedestrian of any age in sight. Yet according to Mr Emberton, I am a menace to society and he sends me his demand for £60 with great enthusiasm.

The need is for constant care on the part of both walkers and drivers, including police drivers, who themselves have been responsible for a substantial number of deaths. But they claim that when such deaths occur, they result from the careless pedestrians and other careless drivers involved and not from their lack of skill and caution. They may be right, or, in some cases, perhaps not. The present conduct of the Lancashire Constabulary is arousing a great deal of public anger and producing an animosity towards the police which is no good for society in general. Certainly, such a policy does nothing to discourage the actions of drunken or irresponsible teenage drivers. It would be a boon, if, on Mrs Pauline Clare's retirement as Chief Constable, she could take her zero tolerance policy with her.

I recently spent a couple of days driving around in the Leeds district, with never a speed camera in sight. How remiss of the police authorities in that area. The number of accidents and deaths must be horrendous. It does demonstrate, however, an objectionable inequality in the administration of the law.

T J LONGSTAFF, Gorse Road, Blackburn.