If you are one of the 1,000 or more motorists trapped by Sussex Police at the roadworks outside Sussex University at Falmer each week, I would urge you to consider pleading not guilty.

If you were driving westwards on the A27 and needed to accelerate to the speed of the traffic on the main carriageway in order to merge safely, you can make the straightforward and valid point that safety overrode the temporary speed restriction.

In addition, the requirement to change lanes occurs at the same position as the camera, where many motorists need to accelerate or maintain their higher speed to ensure they are placed in the correct lane.

On the other hand, if you were travelling eastwards in late October, when the signage was inadequate, you will have noticed the start and end of the restriction was totally unclear.

Several motorists will have speeded up at what they saw as the end of the roadworks only to incur a flash.

In my case, I accelerated to overtake a line of traffic which was merging at some pace from the left and felt this was the safer option in the circumstances, rather than either braking hard or causing others to brake. In my case, I was also unclear on where the speed restriction started.

I very much doubt the busy magistrates at Brighton would wish to deal with thousands of extra cases a week and if, like me, you intend to plead not guilty we just might, collectively, cause Sussex Police to reconsider this policy.

Or, dare I say, would they be reluctant to lose this nice little earner of around £60,000 a week?

-Mark Pearson, Mwpears@aol.com