Letters to the Editor

Social Services propose that over approximately 12 months, when residents in each of the homes have been reduced to a manageable number (in other words half have died) the homes will merge.

In the meantime, as there are only five council-run homes qualified to cater for this group of residents, potential provision in Bradford has been reduced by at least 20 per cent.

It would be interesting to know how social workers and families are managing in this climate. There have been numerous inquiries at Greenacres for places since they ceased to accept new referrals and six months into the projected 12-month time span Broadstones staff have not had any specialist training in dementia care.

It is recognised that there is a major crisis in elderly services countrywide. This is exacerbated by councils who hive off their responsibility for the most vulnerable people in their care to the private sector.

Mrs Eileen Armstrong, Nuttall Road, Bradford 3.

SIR - L Hobsbaum's (Letters, June 6) seems to think it is my wish to make poverty an imprisonable offence. That being the case it would seem I would want myself to be behind bars for this serious crime of being poor.

But then again I was brought up in the years when the law was a respected foundation not like now I'm afraid.

If Mr Hobsbaum had read my letter correctly he would have noticed the words "I live on a pittance but I still manage to pay all my bills through careful housekeeping (just)."

My point was that if everybody paid for what they should then perhaps tax, insurance, prescriptions, water rates and council tax would maybe stop at this level for a while without any rises.

P Glennon, Craven Terrace, Bradford 2.

SIR - I have seen your report (May 31) regarding bus drivers being trapped by speed cameras on Thornton Road and bus companies instead of criticising them are supporting them by making excuses that "bus drivers are under pressure to keep timetables, they are only marginally over the limit, they are under pressure and put their foot down."

I am sure bus companies know that the law is the same for everyone. We taxi drivers may have the same excuses but police won't listen to us. If taxi drivers are prosecuted, so should the bus drivers be.

Taxi drivers are more under pressure. Although people can travel from city centre to Thornton in a bus paying only £1, if they are in a hurry they would rather spend £6-£7 to go in a taxi to get there faster.

I hope the police will enforce the law equally for all rather with any discrimination to bus drivers, taxi drivers or any other motorists.

J K Gupta, Hollybank Road, Bradford 7.

SIR - Please note well regarding the T&A (May 31) that many improvements have been made with the buses and we should be congratulating them not condemning them on the front page for one speeding incident when many other people also get caught.

Simon Budd, Isley Court, Bradford

SIR - Mr Barker tries to put road deaths in context by comparing them with deaths from falls (Letters, June 5). However he is not comparing like with like. Falls mostly kill older people whereas road deaths often happen to younger people - children and young parents.

Premature death is always tragic, but much more so when it afflicts the young, especially as they are more likely to have dependants.

Moreover, for every road death there are ten life-changing injuries. The consequences of speeding can be that you or somebody else has to spend the rest of their life completely dependent on carers.

This is part of the reason that road casualties cost £700 million per week, money that could be better spent on something else.

Almost all road crashes are caused by driver error, which may be due to tiredness, drugs or alcohol, or simply because human beings make mistakes. However, speeding always seriously aggravates errors, which is why speeding can be so unexpectedly lethal.

Given the lurid colour of road safety cameras, they are hardly a stealth tax! Being caught is perhaps a case of lack of attention or poor eyesight.

Ray Wilkes, Yorkshire & Humberside Transport Activist's Roundtable (http://www.yhtar.org.uk/), Tower Road, Shipley

SIR - A recent Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health report has revealed the true cost to society of mental illness in England as being £77.4 billion, a figure double previous estimates. The report puts the cost of patient care at £12.5 billion, lost economic output at £23.1 billion, and the reduced quality of life for people with a mental illness at £41.8 billion.

Nationally there are more than 600,000 people with a severe mental illness, and one in four of us will at some point experience a mental health problem. So if things are to get better it is essential that the Government now acts by ensuring that the funds are available for local Primary Care Trusts to commission the full range of mental health services that are so badly needed - and that includes prevention and early diagnosis.

There is limited evidence that extra money promised by the Government has yet reached front-line services. The Government must learn that money spent on prevention and tackling stigma and discrimination is, in the longer term, money well spent.

Until then we are all going to continue paying the price for failing to reduce the prevalence of mental illness.

Martin Ball, Public Affairs Officer, Maca, High Holborn, London WC1

SIR - Many view the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as purely Muslims versus Jews. And aren't Arabs all Muslims and Muslims all Arabs?

The reality is that some 15 per cent of the world's Palestinians are Christians, a vibrant community that has experienced as much suffering as Palestinian Muslims. In the latest uprising for freedom, Palestinian Christians have been among those killed or maimed for life by the Israeli army.

The Palestinian Christians are united with Palestinian Muslims in the goal of liberation.

I can understand, however, the public relations value for Israelis in ignoring Palestinian Christians. After all, given the unfair vilification of Islam after 9/11, why let your Western supporters know that you are also battling Christians?

Malcolm Wilsher Muhammed, Leeds Road, Bradford 3

SIR - In the T&A of June 2 Councillor Irene Ellison-Wood wanted to know how to stop Keighley from choking to death.

My solution would be a one-way system as an inner ring road as follows: down Cavendish Street, right on East Parade, past Morrisons to Halifax Road, right to the Cross, round the cross on to North Street and back to Cavendish Street.

This would give a four-lane road all around the town providing parking wasn't allowed on the above roads.

Surely a very cheap, simple answer to the problem!

G Pollard, Kingsway, Riddlesden.