I was very surprised at the sensational and unbalanced tone of a report in today's paper of a motor accident at the junction of Banstead Road and Harrow Road.

You quote Lynne Fletcher, a local resident pressing for traffic calming measures, describing Ban-stead Road as a banger race track', and uncritically accept her claim that the accident was caused by the excessive speed of one or both vehicles.

So far as we can tell there is no evidence that speed was a factor in this collision, which is far more likely to have been caused by poor observation. I have lived within half a mile of this junction for over five years and have never seen Banstead Road or Harrow Road used as a race track of any kind, and in my view Ms Fletcher's comment is a gross exaggeration.

You reported recently that Ms Fletcher and her fellow campaigners had been told by the council at a meeting of the Carshalton and Clockhouse Area Committee that research

showed this junction was no more dangerous than any comparable

junction in the borough and did not require local taxpayer's money

being spent on re-modelling it.

The campaigners (how many of them are there, in fact?) apparently refused to accept this and are still

pressing the Council for these unnecessary measures. I hope the council continues to stand firm against their unreasonable demands.

Philip Drury, Prior Avenue, Sutton

July 18, 2002 11:30