A WORD of sympathy for Mr Greg Hall (Citizen letters last week).

There seems to be an increasing trend in all walks of life to quote the rule book and demonstrate inability or unwillingness to apply common sense and discretion.

This is bad enough in industry and commerce, but far worse when the police and the magistrates are involved.

The judicial system needs to be respected and seen to be protecting the public in a way which is compassionate and fair, and this will never be achieved when the law is treated as the end rather than the means.

If Mr Hall's account is accurate, when faced with an emergency, he applied discretion in respect of the speed limit, and this is something the police themselves frequently and sensibly do.

Fines and endorsements are intended to act as deterrents, but in such circumstances achieve nothing beyond satisfying the letter of the law.

Perhaps we should be more willing to take these situations into court, where we can express our views in an open arena, and force the magistrates to do likewise.

Of course, it may be true, as Mr Hall hints, that speeding fines have as much to do with revenue as road safety, in which case it is probably the Home Office or the Treasury where we should direct our comments.

These departments are more likely to be the true source of such attitudes than the police or the courts.

Vincent Smith,

Woodford Copse,

Chorley.