I READ with some suspicion the fact that Julia Mulligan and Tim Madgwick of North Yorkshire Police are announcing the introduction of yet more mobile safety cameras (Zoning in on speeding, Gazette & Herald, April 6).

I wonder if the description given, ie “smaller and able to park in areas the current vans cannot access”, is political speak for them being more easily concealed.

I am sure that speeding is an issue in some villages, but I am equally sure that other far more serious issues also concern rural inhabitants.

I wonder if the enthusiasm to tackle this issue is driven by the fact that it is an easily detectable offence, requires no investigation and clearly fills the empty coffers.

If the issue is to deter motorists from speeding then fixed camera sites can be effectively located in accident black spots. However, I suspect that deterrence is not the target - money generation via mobile units is the true issue.

At a time when we are constantly reminded that the police are subject to manpower shortages and “there is no one to attend” being the response to calls, then North Yorkshire Police need to genuinely look to the image they create.

By being the “enforcement” part of the Community Safety Partnership, the public perception of North Yorkshire Police is that they are targeting soft options at the expense of more serious issues.

To reassure any readers, I do not have a hidden agenda in relation to mobile speed cameras, merely a disgust at their “smoke and mirrors” deployment.

Graham Carter, Cropton

Poor prediction

IT is George Osborne’s turn to put the frighteners on us.

A near enough quotation is: “every household of working people will be £4,300 worse off per year if we ‘negotiate’ our way out of the EU.”

This is a prediction for 2030. We do not have the facility to predict our weather 14 days ahead; perhaps the Treasury should try its hand at meteorology.

Other recent quotes from the same camp include: “The UK contribution to the EU is paid for by about 1p from each pound of tax collected.”

Sounds not too bad but it actually means that each average household pays at least £363 to the EU by way of taxation each year.

The government spent £9.3 million on sending their glossy leaflets to every household in the UK. That paid the postage, at about 34p per leaflet.

But who paid for the cost of designing, writing, composing and printing (done in England by a German owned firm), which I would estimate at about £5 million?

And, just to make it all fair the Brexiteers, when organised into a single group, will be offered £7 million for their whole campaign. Perhaps £40 million would have been a better offer.

D M Loxley, Hartoft, Pickering

Stunning show

YET again our Ryedale Youth Theatre has excelled in putting on their performance of Singin In The Rain for our enjoyment.

The show was superb and as ever a colossal amount of hard work by Angela Kirkham and her team has taken place to put this on for our pleasure.

The costumes were stunning and there were some very quick changes, but it was all so slick.

The diction in the singing was perfect, so loud and clear, you could hear every word.

We are fortunate to have these shows and the huge amount of talent in our young people in this area.

A big thank you to you all for a wonderful evening. Well done.

Joan Lawrence, Mayor of Malton