I CAN understand Mr and Mrs Pye's concern about speed limits across the junction of Moss Bank Way with Halliwell Road and Smithills Dean Road (Bolton Evening News, April 29).

As both the publisher of the "Focus" leaflet, to which they refer, and one of the Smithills councillors active in the campaign for safety at this junction, I hope I can be allowed to reply to the implied criticism of us.

Having refreshed my memory from the Council Minutes and Order Papers from 1991 and 1992, I can assure Mr and Mrs Pye that it was Liberal Democrat councillors who were mainly responsible for pushing the council to implement the temporary safety measures at this junction, including the 30mph limit and the warning signs.

In saying that, I do not wish to minimise the impact made by the students and others to get longer-term improvements at this junction -- that was a very important campaign and we recognised it at the time.

However, the long delays in the physical improvements caused by land acquisition and design problems made it essential to bring in interim measures to reduce the likelihood of accidents.

The council's Planning and Engineering Services Department appeared to lack any sense of urgency or willingness to press for the necessary measures, and my colleagues and I played a major part in getting things moving.

Examples were --

1. Council was told that a "red man/green man" facility could not be installed at the junction. It was only after Liberal Democrat councillors had questioned this that they accepted it could be done.

2. The Department appeared willing to accept the Department of Transport view that a 30mph speed limit should not be implemented through the junction. It was only after we moved an amendment at Council (August 1991 -- see Bolton Evening News report August 16, 1991) insisting that a delegation should be sent to the Department of Transport to forcefully argue the case that the council's stance changed (most Labour councillors abstained on our amendment). Incidentally, we proposed that a representative of the students should be included in the delegation. The council eventually got approval for a temporary 30mph limit -- we do not believe they would even have pushed for it without our pressure.

3. Temporary warning signs were erected on the approaches to the junction, but the council was prepared to take them down when the Department of Transport pointed out they were unauthorised. I wrote to the Department of Transport and got permission for the signs to be retained until the junction improvements were implemented (see Bolton Evening News reports on June 25, 1992 and July 16, 1992).

These temporary measures were instituted through action by the local Liberal Democrat councillors -- despite the inaction or opposition of the controlling Labour Group.

All the above is history, although it is important to get it right. Our concern now is to find out the reactions of residents to the proposal to increase the speed limit again from 30mph to 40mph.

Mr and Mrs Pye obviously have some strong views, and these seem to be shared by many living in the vicinity. We would be delighted to hear the views of others.

Roger G C Hayes

Councillor, Smithills Ward