Letters to the Editor

Well done Baildon, West Royd, Owlet, Norwood Avenue, Ivy Bank Court and Hirst Wood. Your politicians have done you proud. It is what it does not say that tells me everything.

Wrose, which has many council tenants, has been left off the map. This is very disappointing to me and I feel insulted by the decision.

The sell-off of council stock promised that huge sums of money would be released for repairs and improvements. My house is in urgent need of some very basic repairs.

I have been fobbed off for many years by the powers-that-be and now the promises of the new landlord are as empty as the last lot.

Nothing is going to change. What can I do?

Linda Holmes, Wrose Road, Wrose.

l Councillor Martin Smith, chairman of Bradford Community Housing Trust, said: "The Housing Stock Transfer will provide investment of £175 million over the next five years. The Year One Programme has been developed using stock condition information, health and safety concerns and takes account of ongoing schemes and previous Council commitments.

"The Wrose area will be included within the full five-year programme which will be available for consultation later in the year at the Shipley Area Board."

SIR - People shouldn't take the trouble to write to the Telegraph & Argus about the lack of gritting when we have snow. All they need to do is get themselves elected as an MP or a Councillor.

Then, even if you live on a perfectly level road, you will find the Council will be along with a liberal amount of salt and grit. I even saw such a road being gritted on the evening of Christmas Day 2001.

But a word of warning - your Councillor will get very tetchy if you point this out!

Peter A Rushforth, Sutton Drive, Cullingworth.

SIR - Councillor Thorne must be politically nave if he is shocked at some of the letters he receives expressing displeasure at the asylum seekers' numbers.

Does he not listen to the man/ woman in the street? Does he not see the asylum chaos when the abuse is measured in tens of thousands? Isn't he himself concerned with the diseases, terrorism and sundry crime that some of these people import? Can he live with the further pressures on the ailing health and education services?

If the letters are abusive towards the asylum seekers themselves it is unfair. Who can blame them for joining the benefits gravy train?

The letter writers should vilify the politicians who allow this to happen.

Let's hope Mr Thorne will recover from his shock in time to turn his attention towards politicians of his ilk who have got us into this state.

No wonder people are losing their cool in print. At least they are not rioting on the streets through frustration.

Peter Chapman, Huddersfield Road, Wyke.

SIR - Michael Breen (Letters, February 4) wants a total ban on asylum seekers on the grounds that they are all potential subversives or terrorists.

So while we're about it let's lock up every adult male in the UK on the grounds that they are all potential rapists or paedophiles.

Peter Wilson, Thornhill Grove, Calverley.

SIR - It is good news that we are soon to have, at long last, a "just eleven" of community police officers who, hopefully, will get the support and backing of most of the Bradford public in their on-going fight against the undesirables who, for too long, have blighted the lives of too many with their vandalism, thefts, muggings and general disregard for law and order.

I don't expect these 11 to work miracles overnight, but I have a gut feeling that they will, hopefully, restore a lot of the confidence and esteem in the police force that for many diverse reasons, many members of the public have felt has been missing over the past few years.

Donald Firth, Harrogate Street, Undercliffe.

SIR - Bearing in mind the private pensions rip-off in the past, the Government must create confidence in further schemes of this nature. The current government of the day should make up any shortfall in future pensions.

There has to be an agreement between all parties that whosoever is in power will honour this agreement.

Also, the time to retire must be a personal choice dependant on what the individual has accrued for his/her retirement.

Trevor Williams-Berry, Bredon Avenue, Wrose

SIR - I would like to know why grants are paid to all types of groups for art, youth and Capital of Culture schemes, yet our Air Ambulance can be grounded for lack of money.

Surely this should have priority.

I personally think the Government should pay for this service.

J R Smith, Flawith Drive, Fagley.

SIR - I agree wholeheartedly with David Somerville in Faith to Faith matters (February 1) that it's impossible to have peace without justice.

One way in which we can strive to achieve a more just world is by promoting Fair Trade products which give people from the developing world a fair price for their produce so they are not exploited by multi-national companies.

March 3 - 14 is Fair Trade Fortnight and I would like to draw the attention of your readers to an event in Bradford on Saturday, March 8, to publicise and raise support for Fair Trade.

This is being organised by the Bradford Trade Justice Network, from 10am-2pm, at the bottom of Darley Street (outside the Virgin store). Free samples of fairly-traded good may be available!

Mrs Dilys P Peacock, Daisy Hill Lane, Bradford 9.

SIR - In answer to the letters from D Jewitt regarding the fox (February 7), don't these people understand foxes have fangs? They are carnivores like the stoat, weasel, otter and badger. It is perfectly natural for them to kill to eat. It's called survival. Are they expected to crop grass like sheep?

Doesn't it matter that we kill up to a million birds and animals weekly to satisfy our greed, or that the eight million-plus cats kill over a million song birds yearly that are fast diminishing?

If this lame duck of a Prime Minister had kept his promise, hunting with hounds would be a thing of the past.

R Carter, Baildon Road, Shipley.

SIR - Just a few comments to say how well you have portrayed the members of the 4th Battalion the Parachute Regiment (TA) in the T&A of January 8.

As an ex-member of the Regiment serving with 4 Para for some 13 years, I am immensely proud of those lads. They have been given the opportunity to show the government of this country just how valuable the volunteer force is.

I understand from speaking to many members of the regiment that they were volunteering in their vast numbers and had to be split down into different categories for mobilisation.

4 Para will do us proud and they show no diminishment when the going gets tough. My thoughts are with them and their families during this deployment to the Gulf. I wish them all luck.

Carl Goodchild, Carling Close, Great Horton.

SIR - So proud homeowner Basharat Hussain feels aggrieved that his house is not included in the Barkerend Road freebie regeneration scheme (T&A, February 10).

Perhaps he would like to consider doing what I and the majority of other proud home owners have to do when our homes need repairs. We save up and pay for the work ourselves.

D Slater, Avondale Road, Shipley.