SIR - Last week another elderly person died while trying to cross the Harrogate/Otley Road junction at Undercliffe traffic lights. This is the third fatality I can recall in the time I have worked and lived in Undercliffe and I have sadly lost track of the number of non-fatal accidents and the countless near misses on the same stretch of road.

Over the years, many rumours have circulated regarding improvement to this junction. Cameras were installed but seem to do little except consistently fail to identify speeding motorists who disregard the red signal.

Meanwhile the volume of traffic and the size of the commercial vehicles using the road continue to increase, forcing the residents, many of them elderly, to gamble with their lives every time they venture to the shops.

If positive action is taken to implement safety measures now it will still be too late for the latest victim, for her family and for the many local people affected, but at least this lady's death will not have been entirely in vain.

Future fatalities and accidents can be avoided, so when can the improvement work start?

Fiona Reid, Sherwood Place, Undercliffe.

SIR - So now someone has been killed at the most dangerous junction in Bradford - where Otley Road and Harrogate Road meet - and what will anyone do about it? Nothing!

In Undercliffe I have attended meetings, helped to get a petition together, written letters, but does anyone listen?

All I have ever got from Bradford Council is that they have no money.

I would like to say to Bradford Council that we, the people of Undercliffe, have waited far too long for you to do something, so I suggest you get your act together before you make someone else unhappy with the loss of a loved one.

Barbara J Rudd, Roger Court, Undercliffe.

SIR - Great ideas for the city centre, though the lake is a little small.

By the time this scheme materialises all the shops will be shut. I think a covered travellator to Leeds would be a far better idea (I hasten to add I personally do not shop in Leeds, so no letters!)

If Bradford wants to be a city of anything other than bargain stores it has to attract quality shops. The centre is an ideal size for shopping, but people will not visit unless there is a good selection of shops, arcades and stores. The only quality department store left is Sunwin House. I appreciate Forster Square retail park but that removes people from the centre.

We need a "through" railway line to prevent Bradford being a dead end. Once you are off in Leeds why travel any further?

Also people who came up with a space-age city centre should walk around some of the streets and see the filth and dirt. It is wonderful to have a vision but don't they think everybody in Bradford would like a crime-free, educated, clean city?

Philip Hartley, Tunwell Lane, Eccleshill.

SIR - Bradford City Council plan for flooding its newly-installed, highly-expensive 'pizza' and its white elephant plans of once again 'redeveloping' its city centre reveal what we outsiders in Bradford's far-flung regions have stated many times.

In times of financial crisis and chaos Bradford lurches from one silly idea to another. The councillors and officers do not seem aware that the extra millions involved in dreaming up such schemes need to be put to better use. We in Keighley and its surrounding regions pay a higher percentage of our rates and rate support grant than 'Bradfordians,' yet do not receive the return that would be justified.

I would suggest, however, that most of us would pay extra if councillors were to completely wall off Bradford city centre, including City Hall, and flood it to a depth of 30 metres. An additional precept of £50 per year could be added to our rates bill if all Bradford District councillors were prepared to stay in City Hall while the area was flooded.

David Samuels, Keighley Town Council, Guardhouse Prospective Councillor, Station Road, Oxenhope.

SIR - As a payer of the Bradford council tax, may I ask who is to find the money for the so-called city centre masterplan? I won't bother to say what I think about it, but I will say I don't think people in Bingley should be involved.

I was born in Bradford but have lived in Bingley for nearly 50 years and will probably never set foot in Bradford again. I prefer to remember it as the splendid old town it used to be.

When I moved here, Bingley had its own mayor and local council and the sooner we are a separate town again the better. Apparently the designer of the Bradford scheme is only 29 so he obviously knows very little about this splendid city, centre of the woollen industry.

He is obviously trying to turn this once-important city into a holiday resort. I wonder if he will find all the necessary millions.

Maybe some day somebody will give Bingley back its independence.

Mrs M Cook, Hall Bank Drive, Bingley.

SIR - The bureaucratic nightmare called the EU is non-democratic as the European Parliament is subservient to non-elected commissioners and other officials, just like the old USSR.

The number of euros in circulation is not controlled by a central federal bank, as in the USA, but individual countries can, and do, print excess euros for national political ends.

Our traditional economic wealth generators of farming, fishing, engineering and textiles have all been seriously eroded by EU policies, yet we are still a major net contributor to the EU. No politician has yet dared to tell us just how expensive it will be to the UK taxpayer to fund the demands of the new member states.

We voted to join a Common Market - not a non-democratic federal European Union. It is time to get out and paddle our own canoe. After all Switzerland, Norway and Iceland are getting on very well on their own, as we used to!

Arthur Bailey, Nelson Road, Ilkley.

SIR - What are Bradford cyclists to think when they hear the announcement of the plan to build the Great Northern Trail?

Cyclists here are still waiting for their Council to complete their section of National Cycle Route 66. At present we must go to Leeds or Kirklees to link into any significant lengths of the National Cycle Network. Plans to construct Route 66 have been talked about for so long we can all repeat them in our sleep.

Many other local authorities in the north have provided many miles of wonderful, safe, traffic-free cycle routes on which you can cycle from one end of the borough to the other.

Bradford's contribution meanwhile has been pathetic. These routes are heavily used and much appreciated by families, young and old. Could it be that the Great Northern Trail is a rural route and therefore supported by the majority group whose wards are often in the leafier, wealthier more rural parts of Bradford?

Pam Ashton, Chair, Bradford Cycling Action Group, Hazelhurst Road, Bradford.

SIR - John Taylor says schoolchildren need good role models, like Posh and Becks (Letters, October 14) but I am completely "miffed" that he should bring my name into it by saying that I seem to support the re-introduction of corporal punishment.

Mr Taylor should really read my letter (T&A, October 7) again and, just for the record, I did not choose its title "the value of the cane". My comments on corporal punishment were in response to David Barnett's fantasies on the subject.

Corporal punishment will never, ever return. Nobody in their right mind would even campaign for it and neither did I.

Gary Lorriman, North Walk, Long Lane, Harden.

SIR - As Christmas approaches, families who are strapped for cash often rely on loans from firms that collect repayments each week on the doorstep. The National Consumer Council is interested in finding out how well this service works.

We know people often value the service highly but some feel it can also be an expensive way of borrowing. As part of our investigations we would like to talk to collectors who work for home credit companies. Phone Steve Brooker on 020 7881 3046.

We hope our work will lead to a better deal for everybody.

Frances Harrison, Head of Policy Research and Development, National Consumer Council, 20 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0DH.