A local road safety campaigner has this week welcomed the news that the House of Commons Transport Select Committee is to recommend that lower speed limits should be introduced on rural roads. Councillor Barry Stamp, who represents Haughton and Church Eaton on both Stafford Borough and Staffordshire County Council, said that while he supported the committee's views he did have some concerns about the practicalities of the plan.

"Over the past few years, the problem of traffic speeding along rural roads has become a major issue. As Councillor for Haughton, Church Eaton and Gnosall I am involved, along with local residents, in trying to get this problem reduced. While I welcome the news that the Government is going to look at officially reducing speed limits in rural areas, I am concerned that this will have little effect unless it is adequately policed. Experience shows that many motorists already ignore existing speed limits, so I cannot see that anything will be achieved by installing new signs showing lower speed limits. I believe a more positive approach would be, not only to give the police more resources to monitor the speed of traffic, but also to give more powers to the courts to deal with offenders properly."

"This is clearly a wasted opportunity but with more thought and some extra resources being made available, it could in fact go some way to solving what is becoming a major problem," said Councillor Stamp.

Councillor Stamp now intends to raise the issue with the County Council's Development Services Scrutiny Committee and will be asking them to write to Central Government to express their concern.