AS a former head of Road Policing for Scotland, I welcome Fiona Hyslop acknowledging the horrendous increase in road deaths and injuries ("Scotland’s national speed limit could be changed in bid to cut road deaths", The Herald, October 9). Improvements in road safety are most successful when everyone pulls together and based upon the foundations of Engineering, Education, Encouragement and Enforcement.

Engineering advances in motor vehicles have likely saved more lives than any other factor bolstered by good road layouts, pedestrian crossing points et cetera. Poor maintenance, obscured or dirty signs, worn or obliterated markings, so important on B and C class roads indicates better investment in maintenance is needed by the roads authorities on those roads with higher incidences of collisions. And drivers cocooned in their warm, highly-engineered vehicles cannot become complacent to changes in road conditions and must adapt their driving style accordingly. ABS, stability controls and airbags can only do so much; the morning commute in heavy rain should not be seen as a white-water rafting challenge.

Police Scotland made difficult choices. We lost the roads safety officers who had deployed successfully for many years and despite the excellent materials and support from Road Safety Scotland, were trailblazers in advocating good practices. Road safety education now sits firmly with the local authorities as it has done since 1982. Police officers deliver some educational/encouragement advice at the roadside and events such as the Rider Refinement project and car cruise meets. The education/encouragement strands are also evident in the many themed campaigns, Lose the Blinkers, drink/drug driving, seatbelts, speeding and more that run throughout the year to raise the public’s awareness.

As for enforcement: I can safely say that working in "the Traffic" (I still do as a special) has led to all sorts of expert opinions, complaints and outrage being offered to me at public meetings and social gatherings. Everyone wants to see more police on the roads tackling offenders and catching criminals, but please let me off with a warning if I’m caught! And why do you close roads for so long after an accident?

To deliver enforcement, a fifth E (Establishment) is needed. Sadly, the numbers of road policing officers have declined, from around 600 constables in 2014 to 500 in 2019 when I was in charge to fewer still now. This much has been reported in the media. The Service has made numerous difficult choices on policing priorities since 2013 and road policing has been a donor division for many years to bolster armed policing, contact command and control, and custody divisions to name but a few.

Speed limits may be lowered (and Mark Ruskell MSP might be looking on with a wry smile having campaigned in 2018 for a default to 20 mph on all restricted roads), but without sufficient police officers, community, response, road policing and others, to enforce road traffic laws the public will continue to witness dreadful driving with the concomitant carnage and grief that fatal and serious collisions leave behind.

Please go safe, it’s everyone’s responsibility.

Stewart Carle, Stirling.

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• I SEE that the latest wheeze to cut road deaths is to put up new signs along our roads. At the risk of repeating myself, what good will this do? The drivers who already ignore speed limits will ignore these and, if caught, plead that they need the car to get to work and will pay a paltry fine.

Now if the rules were to be changed and such drivers had to resit the full driving test, at their own expense, and as an added bonus, had their vehicle confiscated to the local council pound, with a reclaim fee of course, unless there was another eligible household member who could take ownership of the car, we might start to make inroads into reducing road deaths.

I guess a major reason such a solution isn't taken up, not only by the readers of these excellent Letters Pages, but by the powers that be, is that so many of us hold a driving licence and would be lost without it.

However, it would be far more effective for the already struggling public purse than paying for the production and erection of new road signs, not forgetting the "necessary" public information advert, to be played between TV programmes just when people get up from their chairs to put the kettle on.

Patricia Fort, Glasgow.

Hospices should not have to beg

MERLE Slater (Letters, October 9) makes a very valid point when she points out the projected £60 million shortfall in funding which will affect hospices this year. I know from personal experience the care, compassion and kindness which can make a loved one's final days more peaceful and am forever grateful for the help and support extended to us.

I agree that the various individuals and organisations "who so vehemently protest against assisted dying should direct some of their fervour towards persuading the Government to provide adequate financial support to hospices". It is surely shameful that in a wealthy and so-called civilised society organisations providing providing palliative care and support to families in their darkest hours have to rely on charity and the begging bowl to fund their vital services.

William Gold, Glasgow.

The South Portland Street Suspension Bridge The South Portland Street Suspension Bridge (Image: Jamie Simpson)

Glasgow's bridge of sighs

I NOTE with interest Kevin McKenna's recent article headed "Can a Glasgow New Town emerge on the south bank of the River Clyde?" (The Herald, October 7). The South Portland Street Suspension Bridge saved my bacon on many an occasion.

As a young man trying to get home to the south side of an evening I was very thankful for its strategic position linking Clyde Street and Carlton Place. Trying to catch the last red Western SMT bus at 10.20pm was difficult enough under normal circumstances but to see it disappearing westward along Clyde Street from its stance just increased the challenge.

I then had to run hell for leather along Clyde Street to take the shortcut left across the bridge, which bounced alarmingly, to reach the bus stop in Carlton Place, constantly glancing to the right hoping that the bus was getting held up by red lights or traffic. Most times I managed it completely out of breath to slump down on the smoke-filled upper deck, but failure to make the Carlton Place stop before the bus made for a very long walk home.

Ken Kennedy, Stornoway.