SIR - Re your report on the "appalling" distress Council staff had to put up with when certain social services functions were transferred to NHS care.

How does Bradford Council deal with this "major" problem? It pays £40,000 of taxpayers' money to the union to be distributed at its discretion. Easy come, easy go?

It begs the question, how to spot the difference between a civil servant and an asylum seeker?

Is it:

(1) They won't work.

(2) You can't get rid of them.

(3) They are free loaders on our taxes.

(4) They get "final salary" pension schemes, index linked.

Perhaps the do-gooders among us should take up the latter point on behalf of asylum seekers?

R H Marshall, Cullingworth Road, Cullingworth.

SIR - So the Council is going to give the trade union Unison £40,000. It is also going to give Serco more money for Serco's poor performance in discharging the education contract because it is not making enough profit.

The Council is very cavalier with its handing out of public money but very diligent in raising council tax to meet the cost of its profligate behaviour.

I would like a new car. Is there a form which I can fill in to send to the Council's "Department of Handouts of Public Funds" to help me finance MY foibles?

K J Trocki, Birchdale, Bingley

SIR - As an ex-employee of English Electric and Lucas (for 44 years) and an active member of the Sports Club at Phoenix Park for many years, I would like to state a few facts.

Thornbury works and Dick Lane Foundry, now demolished of course, were never part of Phoenix Park. This was the sports and recreation ground for employees in Dick Lane and a very good sports club it was too.

It had a great variety of facilities such as golf course and club house, cricket field and pavilion, rugby and soccer pitches, tennis courts and pavilion and bowling greens. It also had a billiard hall, dance hall and stage for the plays and pantomimes that were produced.

There was also a very comfortable lounge and bar.

This was Phoenix Park, now sadly gone apart, I believe, from the golf course.

Douglas Barron, Queens Drive, Pudsey.

SIR - Nancy Shields's letter (March 3) contained the true facts about the money being wasted through so-called SRBs accountable to Bradford Council.

When Holme Wood was modernised a few private householders asked to have their houses done up by the Holme Wood SRB but was told money from Council and Government could not be used for this as it was illegal. Newlands SRB put the tenants' association against each other and people fighting against each other and it is still like this today.

Nobody is accountable on SRBs when you put in a complaint. If one private house is repaired with Council/Government money all private houses have the same right.

When people buy houses they are responsible for all repairs, not the Council. Why was money not used for public services?

J R Smith, Flawith Drive, Fagley.

SIR - We regularly park our car in the car park at the side of Penningtons's Live whenever Bradford City are at home in the belief that someone is monitoring the cars during the match. We returned the other night to find a burgled Vauxhall Corsa with its window smashed.

We all pay £3 to park our cars there and expect them to be secure. I only park here because my car was burgled on a side street and now I must consider whether to park there in future.

Of course there is a sign claiming the car park cannot be held responsible for the cars or their contents. Why then do we have to pay to park there?

Can Mr Pennington address this situation and assure us for future match days?

Philip Woodward, Prince's Street, Buttershaw

l John Pennington said: "Thankfully incidents like this are few and far between - but predominant on match days in spite of the usually high police presence. Staff have previously deterred incidents of crime but it is impossible to guarantee safety and I appreciate that Mr Woodward may have to review his options."

SIR - I found your report of March 4, "Marathon given boost by bunnies", deeply disturbing.

Mrs Whitaker and her daughter should not be "selling off" (as she puts it) live animals to raise money for charity.

Has she any idea where these bunnies are going and to what kind of people? Why has she got a "surplus" of baby rabbits?

Does she allow her adult rabbits to breed indiscriminately?

Also is she giving the wrong signals to her nine-year-old daughter, that it is perfectly acceptable to sell animals to make money?

These are living creatures. They are not pieces of unwanted bric-a-brac to be sold on.

Jean Brown, Cooper Lane, Bradford 6.

SIR - I wholeheartedly agree with the comments raised by Robert Hornsby (March 6) in regard to Israel's breach of countless UN resolutions.

The UN, USA and the world at large has continuously turned a blind eye towards the atrocities, murders and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians committed by war criminal Sharon.

Amnesty International and a number of other human rights groups have expressed their disgust and concerns as to the treatment of the Palestinians.

However, this has all fallen on deaf ears despite the US's so-called "concern" over Saddam's treatment of his own people.

Innocent people have had their homes blown into pieces, hospitals, ambulances, and schools attacked by tanks and helicopters, elderly people, children and women are murdered in cold blood. There is no respect for human life nor property shown by the Israelis.

Political activist such as Marwan Barghouti are kidnapped and arrested by the Israeli forces for standing up for their human rights.

The reason why many feel anger towards US foreign policy is quite clear. Its enforcement of double standards throughout the world is evidently clear, an issue which is not relatively new and has been practised by past administrations.

A Azam, Thornbury Avenue, Thornbury, Bradford

SIR - Robert Hornsby (Letters, March 6) cites the UN resolutions breached by Israel, and I would like to have heard more about the contents of those resolutions.

Terrorists in many parts of the world use the rape of Palestinian land by Israel, backed by American weapons of war, as the excuse for their acts.

Am I nave in thinking that the withdrawal of Israel from Palestinian property would remove a major cause of Muslim terrorism, including suicide bombers in Israeli cities?

R J P Warren, The Meadows, Acre Lane, Wibsey.

SIR - I have just received a letter from one of my sons serving with the Paras in the Gulf (I have two there). He was called back three days early from leave. Before he went back he went to the army surplus shop and bought some kit and boots.

He was then sat around Brize Norton with all the lads waiting for a plane to take them to the Gulf for three days. They are now out in the desert where it is red hot working with US marines.

Condition in camps?

Marines: marquees, air conditioning, electric, McDonald's, hot portable showers.

Paras: tents, no air conditioning, candles and torches, rations, showers a 4.2 litre coke bottle taped together with holes in bottom and your mate pouring water in the top.

I wonder if it would be different if Tony Blair's boys were there?

Mrs E M Hines, Bolton Lane, Bradford 2.

SIR - Further to the T&A (March 5) and the letters replying to Sid Brown's request for information on his quotation ("They create a wilderness and call it peace").

Bryan Owram, rather ungenerously I feel, says that Sid "misquotes" Tacitus in using "desert" instead of "wilderness". For Mr Owram's benefit I myself would quote: "Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned" (Hesketh Pearson, English actor and biographer).

As an example, I (mis)quote Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, as so many people do, "It is a far better thing that I do now than I have ever done; it is a far better place that I go to than I have ever known" (Correct version: "It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known").

Derek Mozley, Moorhead Terrace, Shipley.