Letters to the Editor

I currently know of two different people who have tried, without success, to win legal redress from the same removal firm. In both cases a substantial number of their possessions was missing when they came to unpack.

Both turned for help to their respective solicitors and both were told that in the absence of an "official inventory" (sic) they stood little chance of success. One, enraged by this, turned for help to the local police and was told exactly the same thing.

The removal firm, of course, denied all knowledge of the matter - and remember, I'm not talking about a few lost lampshades here.

I wonder how many of us would quite naturally sit down and write out an exhaustive list of our possessions for the sake of a simple house move? And what would make it "official" - an equally exhaustive and ruinously expensive check by a solicitor?

I suspect the vast majority would simply trust in the integrity of the removal firm; and it is a sad comment on our society that a thing like that can no longer be taken for granted.

It is an equally sad comment on the topsy-turvy nature of our legal system that I cannot, of course, name the firm in question for fear of their taking action against me.

Mac Selkirk, Derwent Road, Bradford 2.

SIR - The feature "Short cut to Hell on your doorstep" (T&A, August 27) highlighted rat running. That is a derogatory term for motorists who properly and legally use lesser highways in their journeys, against the view by residents that they should not.

No solution was offered to the damaging effect of the ubiquitous car but the implication seems to be that the main roads should be the traffic dustbin of the cities.

But don't we who live there suffer even more day in and day out with noise, pollution, vibration, traffic fumes and anxiety about children and pets?

Every main road in the city is clogged with traffic. To dump the problem on those who live there is not the solution. Building new roads may not be the answer.

Won't the Bingley relief road be seen by the residents of Saltaire as a rat run as they cope with the extra traffic getting around a bottle neck?

Better public transport would help, car-less new housing estates should be considered and traffic limits on main roads introduced. Just passing the buck won't do.

At present the traffic engineer has as much control on traffic as King Canute had on the tide.

R J Lacey, Wrose Road, Bradford 2.

SIR - Mubarik Iqbal (Letters, August 26) may not know that indigenous Bradfordians do speak other languages. At the Bradford Circle for Foreign Languages, for more than a century people have met every week to speak French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Historically and geographically Britain is in Europe, not in Asia. These are the languages of major European countries.

English has 500 million native speakers worldwide, and Spanish has 400 million. I doubt whether Punjabi or the dozens of other Asian languages have this kind of importance.

When large numbers of Poles came to Bradford, they learned English because they wanted to get on and be part of our society. They succeeded and did not expect us to learn Polish.

L Hobsbaum, Willow Crescent, Bradford.

SIR - Your recent reports on the refusal of planning permission for Brenda Satterley's Cat Rescue service in Allerton show that the Bradford councillors concerned have no local knowledge of the facts.

For many years Mrs Satterley has cared for and found homes for hundreds of abandoned cats at no cost to the public purse.

Perhaps the councillors against this free service will finance a cat rescue system out of their own private resources (not out of Council Tax)?

If not, it is to be hoped that common sense will prevail and the refusal will be overturned.

Ian Peters, Meadow Close, Harden.

SIR - Brenda Satterley has worked tirelessly for the last 20 years recovering cats that are inhumanely treated.

People ought to visit Cat Rescue and see the environment and luxury the cats she has rescued live in before finding a new home for them. You could not find a more caring person for the cats than Brenda.

Mrs N Maynard, Coley Road, Northowram.

SIR - S Walsh was wrong to dismiss my objection to Morrisons' head office complex, which is to be built on Gain Lane (Letters, August 29). I can assure Mr Walsh my concern is primarily for the loss of this land as a public amenity plus the disruption its construction will create and not an excuse to belittle Sir Ken Morrison (pictured).

As a council tax payer I am sure Mr Walsh was delighted at substantial public funds being wasted on Odsal Stadium as a consequence of Morrisons' successful objection to Tesco's proposed involvement with funding its redevelopment. It is cases such as this that entitles me to question our Council's devotion to Sir Ken and his commitment to Bradford.

On to Mr Walsh's concern about the old Rawson Market location. How this is relevant to my original point I am at a loss to understand. However, I have a great idea as to what can be built on there, an ideal opportunity for Sir Ken to put something into a rapidly diminishing city centre. The head offices of his empire perhaps?

David Hobbins, Gain Lane, Bradford 3

SIR - The odd blitz by the police against private motorists who abuse bus lanes will achieve little.

Many years ago I stopped driving to and from work and transferred to the bus. There were initial adjustment problems, but now I wouldn't change.

It's reliable, comfortable, and, despite the congestion caused by private motorists, as quick as can be expected.

It's also cheaper than using my car. It gives me time to read, I get more exercise, and I arrive at work fully relaxed.

The bus lane in Thornton Road is much abused by private motorists, all the time. On one journey home this week a significant number of cars used the bus lane, but not most.

At Girlington a car driver pulled quickly in front of the bus, forcing the driver to break. The bus driver sounded his horn, whereupon the car driver deliberately reduced his speed and delayed the progress of the bus.

I observed all from the front seat upstairs.

Large numbers of car drivers appear to lack any consideration for public transport users or other road users who keep out of bus lanes.

A E Harris, Ormonde Drive, Allerton.

SIR - The Government's "national debate on GM" is officially over. Yet it made a firm commitment to the debate's steering committee that it would respond to the published report.

Considering the fact that governments usually like to forget about issues that are likely to embarrass them, this is a significant concession and one that we should not let them forget about.

Governments in this country do not have a good record on addressing people's concerns over what they have a right to do.

Yet when a few biotech companies, a handful of scientists with a vested interest in the area and the American government express concern that public attitudes are stopping them from introducing GM food on to the European market, the Government pulls all the stops out to establish whether or not their "rights" are being respected.

The fact is, the British people have a right to refuse. They have nothing to gain from a technology which is designed to benefit other people at the expense of the consumer, for example genetic engineering designed to disguise old tomatoes as fresh by preventing them going soft.

Tony Blair does not want to hear your comments any more and I am sure he did not like what he heard when the debate was going on, but maybe that is all the more reason to keep on writing and telling him what you think.

D A Stepan, Northwell Gate, Otley.

SIR - There is absolutely no doubt that educational standards have slipped alarmingly since my schooldays. Three-quarters of children today can't write, and the other half can't add up.

Peter Wilson, Thornhill Grove, Calverley.