Letters to the Editor

SIR - Yes, Mr Brown, we need alternatives to fossil fuels swiftly (T&A, June 8). Arrival of the hydrogen fuel cell engine will call for large-scale new electricity generation capacity.

Hugely-destabilising oil and natural gas price surges are imminent simply through depletion of worldwide resources, quite apart from any problems posed by the upcoming fall of the House of Saud.

Add to this the urgent need to address climate change and we have a clear logical conclusion.

I accept we need to push for domestic and commercial energy efficiency and to develop a mix of renewable sources, but the ecology lobby has to get a grip here. Renewables are fiddling around at the margins.

If, implausibly, we urgently covered 2,500 square kilometres of our offshore waters with the world's largest turbines we'd reliably generate about ten gigawatts of capacity - about 12 per cent of our need in 2010.

Covering every acre of agricultural set-aside with short coppice willow and burning every scrap of carbon neutral forestry residue and poultry poo might scrape up another four per cent!

Let's stop footling about. It's a vital economic, environmental and national security requirement to put in place large-scale expansion of modern, safe nuclear power.

M Pollard, Moorfield Drive, Baildon.

Part of our lives

SIR - In his letter, Mr Atkins (T&A, June 9) compares events at Bradford City to a scenario where Morrisons becomes bankrupt.

The biggest consequences of these events would no doubt be the loss of jobs and financial losses incurred by the company's owners and shareholders, but its customers would essentially shop elsewhere.

While it is true these circumstances can also be said of City should the club be wound up, there is one unique difference. As well as the loss of a business it also would mean the destruction of the club's very fabric, its supporters.

Bradford City is a part of our lives, something that we can selfishly hold on to outside our everyday normality. I am not sure that the average supermarket customer would express loyalty in such terms. Perhaps it is our passion for our club that fuels certain fans to demand anything (however unrealistic) for their club to be saved, even if it means going cap in hand to their local grocer.

I urge every Bradfordian to get behind BCFC and for those with nothing positive to say about the club to keep their bitter thoughts to themselves.

B Holden, Otley Road, Eldwick.

College hothouse

Sir - I was dismayed and angered to read the headline Failing school is just a 'madhouse' (T&A, April 2) referring to Immanuel Community College, Thackley. As someone who has worked in education for nearly 40 years, and at Immanuel College since April, I found this sensational headline to be a travesty of the truth.

Immanuel College was clearly given an appalling start to its life by poor local management and decision-making when it opened in 2000. As a result the staff and pupils have paid a high price.

In the words of the 2002 Ofsted report: "Few schools nationally can have faced such similarly challenging circumstances over the last two years, with many of these difficulties stemming from factors outside its direct control."

Anyone actively involved in education knows schools can't be turned round overnight. Of course, politicians like football clubs demand immediate success. Parents, too, have the right to expect the best for their children.

Contrary to the emotive headline, I can report finding a generally calm and orderly atmosphere in the College. Staff and the vast majority of pupils are working hard and determined to succeed.

I believe that with the support of the local community, and with newly-appointed additional leadership personnel, Immanuel Community College will soon be better described as a 'hothouse' of opportunity and achievement.

David Chamberlin, DfES School Improvement Adviser, Immanuel Community College, Thackley.

l EDITOR'S NOTE: The headline used on April 2 was a direct quote from a mother who had kept her daughter away from Immanuel College for five months because of bullying. It was not a word chosen by the Telegraph & Argus but a phrase adopted by someone with experience of the school. The word was in inverted commas to make it clear it was a quote and not any statement of fact.

Not long enough

Sir - How stupid are we to allow the Eleners to appeal for a shorter sentence? The people of Bradford should have the chance to appeal for a longer sentence to the one they received for deliberately ending a man's life.

The Eleners should forfeit their freedom, and life should mean until death!

How can they claim that their punishment was or is "manifestly excessive"? What is manifestly excessive is the suffering inflicted on the family of Mr Hussain, his children and his unborn child. Twenty-seven years minimum should have read 127!

In this city, we have unfortunately bred (or nurtured) two of the vilest persons known to the world, the Black Panther and the Yorkshire Ripper. It is bad enough having to admit that this city can claim such kinship without adding another couple of evildoers.

Phil Boase, Elizabeth Street, Wyke.