I HAVE travelled up and down Bolton Road, Silsden, every day since August 1997.

I find cars on most occasions go up Bolton Road faster than they come down. How do I know? Simple. They accelerate away from me, then I find that I catch them as I accelerate after the national speed limit sign just above Airedale Factors.

Those motorists that have gone up the road at 40-mph or more generally stick to that speed after the national limit sign.

I notice similar behaviour when coming from Addingham. Drivers get to the 30-mph limit near to Airedale Factors and continue to drive faster than that down Bolton Road, ignoring the flashing speed warning sign.

They do this night and day. There is no limit enforcement, so if they do get caught they would consider themselves unlucky.

So what can be done? A fixed camera, if it is switched on, won’t work. These motorists will only slow down for the camera then accelerate again. Average speed cameras? Not really either, as they ideally need to be on a road with no side roads or exits, otherwise you need cameras at every point where a vehicle could leave the stretch of road.

There will be calls to make the road a 20-mph limit with speed bumps, but in my opinion this will not make the road safer. Cars will race between bumps and those who normally break the law will continue to do so by speeding.

At the end of the day I feel the only solutions are higher driving standards and good old fashioned enforcement by police as in days gone by.

Cue the police defence of “cuts”, “staffing” etc.

Unfortunately I am afraid there is an addiction to blaming lack of enforcement on cuts. It was probably always so, and how can I argue if they say all our resources are being used to combat drug crime or other serious crime?

TONY DAY Addingham