I was confused by the remarks in Lucy Farndon’s letter (Your Say April 22), responding to my letter of April 15 where I was concerned by the increased pollution affecting asthma sufferers and possibly leading to lung disease and linked heart problems.

She stated in her second paragraph that the safety and health of our communities should be put before the health of our engines.

That was one of the main points that I was making especially now that the Supreme Court announced last week that the Government must abide by the European Parliament’s ruling that pollution levels in Britain must be reduced as we are one of the worst performing countries in Europe and are not meeting the safe levels required on our streets.

I agree death and serious injury are reduced if vehicles are not driven at motorway speeds, but reducing them from 30mph to 20mph is unlikely to make a vast amount of difference and the important factor to bear in mind here is there should be no accidents in the first place with careful driving.

With this ridiculously slow speed of 20mph throughout the whole of the Croydon borough and the resulting high stress levels is it any wonder that the number of road traffic accidents could well increase.

Although I agree with the sentiment expressed on London’s transport network and the overcrowding on our roads caused by too many cars.

This is where some sort of action needs to be taken to try to limit the numbers.

I for one would not feel happy walking or cycling along our roads with the added pollution in the atmosphere caused by slow moving vehicles.

As regards Gordon Thompson’s letter in the same issue, I did not actually mention anywhere in my letter about fuel efficiency, but I am pleased he agreed with some of my remarks.

MIKE FARNELL by email