THE two letters about speed cameras in Birchfield Road (Advertiser, July 23) seem to be about a Redditch which is on another planet.

However you go into Birchfield Road by car, you surely cannot miss the large 30mph speed restriction signs on all the approaches to Webheath from Bromsgrove Highway, Windmill Drive, Callow Hill etc.

If arriving from the town centre, there are no signs showing a higher limit than the 30mph which applies to the roads in the centre other than the Ring Road.

Ian Fidler writes the 30mph speed limit "is open to debate on this stretch of road".

Maybe on this occasion, your correspondent from Wrexham arrived by train or bus and picked up a hire car in the town centre?

In such circumstances, it is safest to assume the limit is 30mph until you see a sign that says otherwise.

I know, I've made the mistake myself and paid the penalty in a fine and points on my licence.

Instead of complaining about being 'caught' for the first time, I accepted it was not the first time I had broken a speed limit and this time my luck had run out.

There are speed camera warning signs along most of the length of Birchfield Road when driving from the Foxlydiate end, which are meant to encourage drivers to comply with the speed limit for the whole time, not just when they see a static camera painted in bright yellow.

I suspect that event that prompted both letters was the presence of the West Mercia Police Mobile Speed Camera van, which the last time I saw it in Birchfield Road was large and easy to identify well in advance.

The Warwickshire unit which operates on the A435 is similarly easy to spot.

The location of both units each day is publicised in the traffic news bulletins on BBC local radio so if drivers do not want to risk fines and penalty points, they could always avoid the areas being patrolled.

On the other hand, keeping an eye open for speed restrictions and complying with them would mean they never have to fear the presence of speed cameras again.

I just wish I could do that all day and every day but I know that from time to time, in common with almost everyone else, I will certainly not comply with every limit 100 per cent of the time.

If I am caught on camera again, I hope I will not whinge about it.

An appropriate limerick by John Adam of Tregadillett, Cornwall, was printed in the Daily Mail. It went:

I've just had a mind- blowing thought

Police cameras now I can thwart

If I stick to the speed

That the law has decreed

I know I'll never be caught.

Happy and safe motoring.

Mike Harvey

Woodbury Close

Callow Hill