MADAM - I do get tired by the offensive shroud-waving every time there is a crash on the A417, as if spending millions in a time of austerity on creating a dual carriageway motorway from Gloucester to Swindon with no space for cyclists, walkers and horse riders is a panacea for all the county’s road safety ills.

If, the advocates of “the missing link” were genuinely interested in road safety rather then filling the pockets of the road building industry with gold, they would be looking at what can be done to make the road safer.

In one recent crash the HGV involved was ‘only’ 15 miles over the speed limit.

The current single carriageway speed limit for HGVs is 40 which means it was 37 per cent over the speed limit - that’s the equivalent of a car on the motorway doing 96mph.

The conclusion has to that enforcing the speed limit for all vehicles is a critical factor.

Personally, I have been extremely impressed at how effective average speed camera systems have been in increasing the respect for speed limits on motorways and in areas like Northern Ireland where it has been adopted more widely.

If it’s cost effective for road works on the M5, why isn’t it cost effective on the A417?

As has been demonstrated so often road safety increases where there are lower speed limits on roads.

If this is such an unsafe road then it is blindingly obvious that the Highways Agency should be shamed into introducing a significantly lower speed limit.

Given the severity and type of accidents, 20mph sounds about right to me but perhaps in a spirit of compromise I’d happily accept a 30mph limit.

I would also wager that a lower limit would help to reduce congestion.

I also think its time to stop the welfare dependency of handouts from Government to fund road building schemes.

If dualling this road is genuinely necessary it should be funded by users paying tolls to use it.

Chas Townley Uplands