COUNCILS have to reduce accident injuries and keep traffic moving.

The two are separate and lack of accident injuries, so much less common with modern cars, is no reason not to make changes that keep traffic moving. Traffic includes pedestrians and cyclists as well as vehicles.

All of this is laid down in law by Acts of Parliament and guidance issued by the government. 20mph limits not only reduce accident injuries, but also help keep traffic moving.

This is because being able to cross the road to a bus stop, walk or use a bike are so much safer if you are hit by a car that people feel safe enough to choose these far more traffic efficient ways travel.

Before the road crossing was built I had to drive several hundred yard to get to a park when my children were small.

The same crossing is used by dozens of children twice a day for school run where previously there were none on foot or using bikes, which means all the cars they were being driven in are no longer causing congestion on the road or at the school gate.

This is traffic evaporation, people changing how they travel when it gets safe.

Constant acceleration and braking driving on busy town roads with 30mph limits causes much higher emissions than a clear run at 30mph.

In addition, traffic flow at junctions and roundabouts can improve when they don't have so many or any vehicles queuing.

Reducing the braking by lowering speed limits reduces brake pad particulates and those from tyres dirtying the air we breathe.

Those of us who still use net curtains to keep air pollution out of our houses can immediately see this pollution on them, and that is what goes into lungs like cigarette smoke, triggering both asthma and heart damage/illness including make impotence.

Most of us past a certain age have a tendency to cling to the past and resist change.

Please don't let this be a reason for blocking the much needed change in our towns' speed limits.

Susan Stockwell

Britannia Road

Poole