Sir, - How gratifying it is to read ( D&S, October 13) that the residents of Great Ayton are having second thoughts on the traffic-calming schemes for the village, and I congratulate Coun June Imeson on her stance against the usefulness of such measures.

I am all for curbing speeding and cutting down road accidents, but this painting of our highways is getting out of hand, and leaves one with the feeling that there is an overstock of red and white paint in council depots, and someone has had the bright idea of getting rid of it, by slapping it on our roads.

The B1257 Stokesley-Great Broughton is a classic example. In just over a mile, road users are confronted with 75 red lines, 28 white "slow" signs, five 30mph signs, a number of camera warning signs, and a white painted mini-roundabout with three associated white arrows - and all for what?

Does the council's head of environmental enhancement consider the defiling our highways with this painted graffiti enhances our countryside, or contributes to the reduction of accidents. If so, let me refer him to an incident I witnessed the other day when two cyclists, no doubt wishing to preserve their equilibrium, pulled out to the other side of the road in the face of on-coming traffic, to avoid a dozen of these ugly protruding red lines.

There is a perfectly good conventional 30mph sign at the entrance to Great Broughton. If road users decide to ignore this, and flout the law, then no amount of painted signs are going to persuade them otherwise. The narrow High Street with its unrestricted parking acts as its own calming device, and I would be interested to learn how many accidents there have been in this village.

Great Ayton residents should be encouraged to dig in their heels and reject this despoliation of villages by over exuberant government departments whose doctrine is, the state knows best.

PETER COOK

The Holme,

Great Broughton.

Unfair criticisms

Sir, - The emotions stirred by the official reopening of Loftus Bank have produced some unfair criticisms and claims (Protest no insult, D&S, October 13).

Mrs Magor's assertion that the planned nine weeks closure was a "gross overestimate" is simply not true. Our engineers set the time frame and were able to beat it by over a week.

And while their efforts must be applauded, surely even they cannot be expected to predict something like the escalation of the fuel crisis, as Mrs Magor would like your readers to believe.

I believe the council has answered all the "genuine and valid points" Mrs Magor demands should be answered and we have had the greatest sympathy with residents over the terrible distribution the work on Loftus Bank has caused.

But we were surprised by the amount of ill-feeling generated by the residents towards the reopening ceremony and, on the day, we did feel it detracted from a job well done.

Our view was, and still is, that the end of a £3m contract, won by our own workforce, and carried out in difficult and dangerous conditions over several months, was a cause for celebration.

COUN SYLVIA SZINTAI

Redcar and Cleveland council