A Bradford Council spokesman, responding to a Heaton woman's complaints about a traffic hazard in her road, says: "We are looking into the accidents that have occurred...to see if there is a problem and what can be done."

It should surely be blindingly obvious that there is a problem. It shouldn't need too much "looking into". Mrs Pam Nicholson can give the Council chapter and verse about the cars which keep crashing into her garden.

They have been doing it since 1976, when a car ended up a mere metre away from Mrs Nicholson's front window. During a single icy night one winter six cars ended up in the garden.

Apart from the major inconvenience of these unwelcome visits, Mrs Nicholson has the constant worry that one day one of them might crash into the house.

It is an intolerable situation for her to have to live with. The fault primarily lies with the drivers, who travel much too fast for a road with a sharp corner. But if they cannot be relied upon to drive responsibly and safely, it is up to the Council to take whatever measures are necessary to slow them down.

A police blitz against motorists travelling along Duchy Avenue too quickly might help in the short term, but the best answer probably lies with permanent traffic-calming measures to force a reduction in speed.

The Council might well have limited funds for this sort of work and need to ration it. But a succession of cars in her front garden, and the prospect of more to follow, must be enough to give Mrs Nicholson's problem a fairly high place in any list of priorities.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.