Let's think big on the odeon site

SIR - I think anyone who cares about Bradford's future, and desires that the ghastly failure of the Wardley-style rebuilding of the Sixties and Seventies shall not be repeated must support Norman Littlewood.

However: I do hope he has done his homework regarding the interior of the "New Vic".

I stood by an open door, at the top of Quebec Street and watched Arthur Rank's "goons" driving a bulldozer into the Victoria Ballroom mirrors. If they have carried on like that, I don't see much hope for the "grand old Odeon".

Will Alsop suggests a marquee-type structure between the two domes. If the inside is as bad as I think it is then something on those lines, preserving the facing wall, would provide a first-rate concert hall.

Who's to raise the money? We need the Lottery for that. I can't see many developers taking a scheme like this on board. Perhaps it can be linked to the Spice! project. Then we could all be happy.

Let's think big, there's plenty of room behind that facade to build anything: concert hall, Spice! project, and anything else.

Jack Mawson, Grove House Crescent, Bradford.

Support Norman

SIR - Where were all the supporters of the Odeon when the meeting was held in City Hall on February 10?

Norman Littlewood was there and at his own expense he is going to London to try get the building listed. And notice he isn't asking for a grant.

He stood in the Kirkgate Centre collecting names. Not only mature people signed but young ones who would like a music centre.

If you wish to sign the petition it will be at the over-50s drop-in centre at St George's Hall on Thursdays between 10am and 2pm.

Susan Bannon, Glynn Terrace, Bradford

One side of story

Sir - I am sorry children are vandalising the buses (T&A, February 9) but I feel this article only gives one side of the story.

If the school services turned up on time and didn't leave children standing in the cold for 30 minutes-plus perhaps the kids wouldn't rebel.

If the drivers knew their route so that they went the right way and the children were not on the bus an extra 20 minutes; if First Group did not overload more than 100 children on to school specials; the list goes on and on.

The picture of the children on the school bus was taken downstairs but all the trouble occurs upstairs.

You have published a one-sided story. If kids were treated with more respect they would treat others that way

Karen Anderson, Thornacre Crescent, Wrose

l Khadim Hussain, Operations Director, First Group, replies: "We are always interested in the comments of our customers, but we need specific details so that we can rectify problems. The issues that Karen Anderson has raised are areas that we would want to address but are unable to due to insufficient or specific information."

Flawed argument

SIR - Robert Tee's curious pronouncements vis--vis the scientific method (T&A Letters, February 10) has put the reputation of the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire into serious disrepute.

Yes, of course science has proved successful and particularly in regard to the natural world, but to suggest that it sheds light on all knowable reality is a total non-sequitur!

And since he is keen on "measuring" alternative claims to reality in terms of technological advancement, has he possibly thought for a moment that we now possess the means of obliterating the entire human race, not to mention the environment and every living species?

Moreover, has he possibly forgotten that the devastating atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the work of a liberal Western democracy guided by a techno-scientific view of the world, far removed from anything that al Qaida or the Taliban could conjure up?

Michael Best, Clarke Street, Calverley.

Evacuee memories

SIR - I am compiling a book of reminiscences of schoolchildren who, like myself, were evacuated from my home town of Wallington, near Croydon in Surrey, at the time of the V1 raids in 1944.

Under the Government Evacuation Scheme, many Wallington children were sent to various parts of the country, one of the areas being Bradford, and I should be very interested to hear from anyone who can recall having one of these evacuees billeted with them, or who might have been at school with them.

I have received an encouraging response from people who were evacuated from Wallington, but it would be good to hear the memories of those who were on the receiving end, so to speak.

Mrs Joan Whateley, Fairfield, Orchard Rise, Richard's Castle, Ludlow, SY8 4EX. (Tel: 01584 831112).

Band together!

SIR - I agree sincerely with Audrey Raistrick that different pension groups should co-operate rather than to crusade against her.

It is her intention to launch a pensioners' parliament which will be for the benefit of all pensioners in the district to form together as there is more strength in numbers than individual small groups.

B Proctor, Valley View, Baildon.

Dress ban correct

SIR - I never thought I would agree with the French government, but the ban on "all" forms of clothing and jewellery that tells everyone what religion you belong to is good.

I think there should be a Europe-wide ban on the wearing of crosses, Star of David emblems and Muslim clothing, especially the burkah, where all you see is eyes looking through a slot.

How do we know who is under these masks?

If these people wish to integrate with everybody else, why should they thrust religion in our faces? Why should you be able to look at a person and know that they are Muslims, Sikhs, Jews Christians, both Protestants and Catholics? Why should we see it on our streets or public places like schools? It should be kept in your own homes. This is not racist because I don't belong to any religious sect, and I would go further, I would ban the teaching of "all" religions in British schools, it is the parents' duty, not teachers'.

All who dress in plain European style are the ones who have integrated the best, and I am on friendly terms with quite a few Muslims.

N Brown, Peterborough Place, Undercliffe.

Can we help?

Sir - There are many people here in Yorkshire, and in the rest of the country, who have the relatively unknown disease sarcoidosis.

Some 10,000 people a year in Britain contract the illness, which mostly affects the lungs, though it can affect eyes, liver, skin, heart and brain - in fact almost any organ can be affected.

The medical profession on the whole has little experience of it and there appears to be little by way of ongoing research into the disease.

SILA, the support group for people with sarcoidosis and other diseases of the lung, is a registered charity, which has its headquarters in London, but we are looking to establish a self-help and support group in Yorkshire.

If you have the disease, or care for someone who has it, and would like our help, please contact us at smstrs@aol.com, (local coordinator) or SILA, c/o Chest Clinic Office, 2nd Floor Admin Block, King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS.

All the members of SILA are non-medical people who suffer from the disease themselves. We can't give medical advice, but we can listen and support you.

Shelagh Masters, Weeland Road, Sharlston Common, Wakefield

Obscene rises

SIR - So the scare is being put about by the Council (T&A, February 9) that council tax may rise. This will no doubt materialise.

The fire service and police should be wholly funded by central government not partly by council taxpayers, we have enough to fund in Bradford.

As one of thousands of fixed income council taxpayers, where do these councillors think we get the extra monies they put on council tax every year? Do they think we have a magic lamp.

I am putting up for the Council in May, and will be going to stop these obscene rises - because the people we have in now do not seem to bother once they are elected.

Michael Breen, Bolton Hall Road, Wrose.