IN response to your feature 'Does the city need speed humps?' (August 5,) I feel a number of points needing clarification.

The reason the Department of Transport research has concluded that 75m high humps are as effective as 100mm ones is that they carried out much of their investigation here in York where we have had 75mm humps for years.

After the creation of City of York Council in April 1996, all the humps in the city were surveyed.

With one exception, those in the York city area were 75mm high.

However, there were a significant number of 100mm humps in the former county area.

We undertook to regularise all the humps and every one should now be not more than 75mm high.

We have some that are 50mm and will soon test humps that are lower still. When we altered the 100mm humps we also changed the ramp profiles to make them gentler on cyclists, motorcyclists and moped riders.

In addition, we have carried out a trial of a new profile of hump which presents less of a thump to car wheels.

This is less noisy for local residents and not quite so much of a "jar" to drivers and passengers.

I believe there is also some confusion about Barnet Council's position on speed humps. To quote the Leader of Barnet Council: "The council policy is to review the effectiveness of any traffic-calming measures on the roads due for improvement". This the policy we have had in place for many years.

Peter Evely,

Head of Network Management,

City of York Council,

St Leonard's Place, York.

Updated: 08:19 Saturday, August 09, 2003