So miffed was I that I refused to go to there again the following year –withdrawing my tourist spend from the Welsh economy as a means of silent protest.

I moaned about it in the paper and quite a number of people, quite rightly I will now concede, told me to shut up and get over it.

I wouldn't have agreed with them then (and I didn't). But I would now.

Part of my hysteria back then was the thought that with speeding cameras seemingly everywhere it would become impossible to drive without being caught out on a regular basis.

I imagined that I would end up banned from the roads within a year.

Experience has disproved this theory.

Since that first mistake, when it was admittedly a mobile camera van that copped me rather than a fixed camera, I have remained ticket free.

The conclusion to draw from this is quite obvious. If you drive correctly, and observe the rules of the road, you have absolutely nothing to fear from speeding cameras.

The issue reared its head this week when it was reported that speed cameras could be scrapped under proposals due to be considered by Swindon Borough Council.

The Tory-run authority is reviewing its involvement with its local safety camera partnership scheme and considering whether to spend its £400,000-a-year contribution elsewhere.

Tory councillor Peter Greenhalgh, head of highways, transport and strategic planning for Swindon, reportedly said the money should be spent on a range of local safety measures.

"These are far more effective that speed cameras which, I feel, are a blatant tax on the motorist," he said. His statement is both factually incorrect and a sop to the whining brigade (of which I was once one) who seek to moan about anything they feel is treating them unfairly.

Speed cameras are not a blatant tax on the motorist because anyone who abides by speed limits will never pay it.

They are, however, a tax on bad and potentially dangerous driving.

Readers of this column will know full well that I am less than enamoured of this tax-and-spend government but here is one "tax" with which I wholeheartedly agree.

I just wish someone would introduce a few speed cameras onto the streets of Normanton to catch out the speeding Chavs in their souped up Citroens.

Such a move might well save us taxpayers from having to foot the bill of yet another "tragic" accident involving reckless young show-offs paying the ultimate price for their testosterone-fuelled bravado.


Airport's blue sky thinking


THE BOSS of Leeds Bradford International Airport tells me that whilst the current economic climate is bound to affect his business, plans for a massive modernisation programme remain on track.

It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that this is welcome news.

Having lost the giant Lumiere towers, for the time being at least, the last thing Leeds needs is for another of its flagship development projects to collapse.

John Parkin insists that his management team is working very hard behind the scenes to deliver an airport of which the region can be proud.

And there is, at last, some physical evidence of work in progress on the terminal building and its facilities after the diggers moved in to begin an overhaul of the approach area and forecourt pick up/set down zone.

When Leeds Bradford added the word "international" to its name several years ago it gave the cynics cause to snigger.

But few can argue now that it has high aspirations and a genuine desire to see them realised.

Leeds needs a successful airport.

Everyone with the city's and, indeed, the county's best interests at heart should therefore fully support the development of this vital piece in the regional economic jigsaw.


Natural born killers


I'VE read with some interest the many letters in the YEP in recent weeks relating to cats and whether they can be blamed for killing birds.

The simple fact is that they can't – it's in their nature and, much as some of us don't like it, we simply have to learn to live with it.

I wonder how many people, for instance, who complain about this fact of nature will happily sit down to a beef tea without thinking of the daily slaughter that ensures our dining tables are well-stocked.

The animals that sustain us didn't choose to give up their lives for our benefit but it is another fact of nature that they do (just be grateful that, unless you go wandering unaccompanied into the African bush, you are at the top of the food chain).

You will have read before of my own battle of wills with the various cats that stalk the environs of Normanton Towers.

Chase

Yes, I'll chase them, shout at them and throw stones near (but not at) them to drive them away but I'm not going to get too stressed if one succeeds in nobbling a passing blackbird.

That's just the law of the (urban) jungle.

What does upset me is the laziness of many cat owners who settle for the easy life of living in ignorance when it comes to their pets' toilet habits.

How easy it must be for them to shove their animals outside to roam around until they find a toilet in someone else's garden.

It wasn't long after I'd put down a rather attractive mulch border at the front of Normanton Towers that one of the neighbour's cats saw fit to stamp its presence by doing its business on/in it.

As cats are generally secretive types,it was of course impossible to identify the culprit.

Had I done so, believe you me, I'd have scooped it up the aforementioned "doings" and deposited them back onto its front garden – and I'd have probably tipped the dirty water from our goldfish's bowl down its owner's drain as well to further illustrate the point.