TWO weeks ago at 8.15pm my sixyear- old cat was run over and killed outside my house, which lies exactly opposite the Westwood School in March. This is the third accident in 10 years. It is a pity it was not a school age child. There that s got your atten

TWO weeks ago at 8.15pm my sixyear- old cat was run over and killed outside my house, which lies exactly opposite the Westwood School in March.

This is the third accident in 10 years. It is a pity it was not a school age child.

There that's got your attention, hasn't it? But before you all rush to write me letters of condemnation, I refer you to a letter I received on September 25, 1998 from Cambridgeshire County Council. I will not name the sender because he was presumably acting under orders, but the letter started: "Re speeding vehicles Maple Grove March", When requests for traffic calming are received we check the records for personal injury accidents which might have been prevented if such measures were to be introduced. There have been no recorded personal injury accidents along Maple Grove in the past three and a half years. This is an excellent record and would not score well on the list for improvements. . ."

The remainder of the letter continues in the same vein but promises to monitor the area continuously. To the best of my knowledge no such monitoring has ever taken place.

The scoring system presumably remains in force. Whatever happened to accident prevention? We rarely see police vehicles or foot patrols. Children are hurt or badly frightened by cars along this road but nobody does anything.

Cars park on the chevrons outside the school gate, across people's driveways on the other side of the road and once recently, actually in the middle of the road (a 4x4). This vehicle opened doors on both sides totally blocking everyone else and the occupants saw two children in to the school gate before calmly driving off as if nothing had happened.

I call again on March Town Council, Fenland District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council to start using some of the money that has made the towns and villages in the south of the county much safer (go look at Cottenham for example) and help us here in the north.

I realise the county councillors live in the south and their needs obviously come first, but cannot just a little of the money come here as well. I have submitted a draft plan to the council before but it was ignored. I would do so again if I thought someone would read it, though I doubt they'll bother.

For the record the poor girl who actually hit my cat was not speeding and was as upset as we were and is not held to blame in any way. Someone or something frightened the cat causing him to lose his normal inbuilt safety sense and bolt across the road from the school. Whoever did that is at fault.

But if there had been just two chicanes at either end of the school and just four 'sleeping policemen' along the rest of the road, the vehicles would have been much slower, the whole of Maple Grove and the two bad junctions with Robingoodfellows

Road and Norwood

Road would be much safer and with that at least two school crossing patrols would be less dangerous.

We would still have a loved pet as well. Is it too much to ask?

DAVID GUNNING

Maple Grove

March