Letters to the Editor

First of all we are here to champion the concerns of local people. Each of the district's councillors has about 12,000 constituents to whom we are answerable. At any time of day or night we can be phoned to deal with sometimes dangerous situations and sometimes we can help just by reassuring people.

We often have to make unpopular decisions and take the rap for it. Ultimately, if the people of the district do not like what we do they can kick us out at the next convenient election.

I reckon on working approximately 40-50 hours per week on Council business. This includes a majority of evenings out at meetings.

There is nothing more demoralising than turning to the Letters page and reading yet another attack from someone who cannot be bothered to get involved themselves.

However, I am glad that I put myself up for election and very grateful to those who voted for me.

Councillor David Ford, Leader, Green Group, City Hall.

SIR - Stanley Wardley's Bradford seemed a good idea at the time of its conception in the early 1950s. The driving forces were firstly to replicate cities like Coventry where wartime bombing had destroyed large tracts of the city centre which gave them the opportunity to build shining new shopping centres.

Bradford had a small hole in the ground which had been Lingards and old-fashioned shops. Secondly to brighten up the very black city centre buildings by replacing them with shiny white Portland stone. Thirdly to enlarge the shopping centre which prior to that time extended from Brown, Muffs in Bank Street to Busbys in Manningham Lane. Fourthly to segment the whole of the city centre into discrete areas for shopping, leisure, etc.

That was the vision but the reality was that it divided the shopping area into two, the Portland stone came to look drab against the by-now honey-coloured city centre, the 1960s architecture was uninspiring and growth in traffic separated the sectors even more.

The lessons of Swan Arcade, Kirk-gate Market and Mechanics Institute should not be lost now on City Hall, ie update the interior for modern use, keep the exterior as it is.

C A Sanders, Southway, Guiseley.

SIR - I was very interested in the T&A article (January 25) re young offenders getting help to improve their reading, spelling and numeracy. This project will be aimed at 16-to-18-year-olds.

The article went on to say that 20 per cent of 16-and-17-year-olds had a reading age of seven or less. Presumably these young people have not had a head injury that could have caused their literacy problems. We would assume that they have been in education for at least ten years, so why have they been left to fail?

If schools fail to equip these young people so they leave schools unable to even complete an application form for a job, how are they going to survive? Unfortunately their answer is to turn to crime.

When will someone be asking the schools and the education authority why these young people have been allowed to fail?

Jane Todd, Glen Dale, Cottingley.

SIR - I think it is disgusting that Bradford Council has turned down the bid to fund the Beacon Enterprises Training Centre.

I have done a lot of courses and gained qualifications at the centre. It is convenient for me to attend there as it is within walking distance from my home. There is the convenience of having an on-site nursery for my youngest son. I have also made lots of new friends there.

I think it would be a great loss to the community if Beacon Enterprises has to close this summer.

Mrs J Harrison, Thorncroft Road, Wibsey.

l EDITOR'S NOTE: We have received several other letters expressing similar sentiments but unfortunately do not have the space to publish them all.

SIR - I see Karl Dallas has jumped on yet another idiotic bandwagon and joined other misguided souls to form a human shield in Iraq. Not only should we let them go, we should not let them back!

I am fed up with people like the deluded Bishop of Bradford and the rest of the "What can we march against this week?" brigade, trying to speak for everyone.

Did anybody at that march condemn the real villain of the current situation, Saddam Hussein? No. I bet they also forgot the TV pictures from Baghdad showing "innocent" Iraqis dancing and celebrating in the streets after September 11.

Let's get in there and get rid of the biggest threat to world peace that we have seen since Hitler.

Tony Sutcliffe, High Park Drive, Heaton

SIR - Susan Brown's optimistic 13-point monologue on what Bradford should celebrate (T&A Letters, January 29) reads like a Labour spin on a dead duck.

To cite Sharmila Gandhi's enthusiasm in her job merely acknowledges how someone is relishing a top-paid job in a role with a puzzling remit. When Ms Brown congratulates the police for informing us of recent successes, she should also challenge them for 'hiding' certain crimes from the press in the name of sensitivity.

As for her assertion that our community leaders are working towards cohesion, I should think they are! Mind you, I rather think they are a little too partisan to their community when it comes to dealing with street disturbances.

Her acknowledgement of the religious gatherings of peaceful worship in the city might be well placed. But if they stopped preaching to the converted and got on to the turbulent streets and preached to the miscreants of all faiths it would be a greater help.

We'd all like to be as positive as Susan Brown about Bradford, but the reality has to be faced. Bradfordians don't invent the fears on the street.

John Masters, Kirk Lane, Yeadon.

SIR - When Karl Marx said "From each according to his means, to each according to his needs" socialists everywhere used this as the basis of their "tax and spend" demands of governments.

It is odd therefore that George and Margaret Riseborough (T&A Letters, January 31) should see a free university education as a basic human right which can only be paid for - if they have their way - through general taxation.

Mr Blair's proposals for the costs to be met by a levy on graduates once they have begun earning above the national average wage is more sensible.

It also seems to be exactly in line with Herr Marx since if an individual feels he needs a degree he will not be required to pay for it until he has the means.

Brian Holmans, Langley Road, Bingley.

SIR - I challenge Mike Priestley's inaccurate and potentially inflammatory statements about asylum seekers.

He wrote recently that there is "hardly any chance" of such people being returned. A local solicitor who works in this field says that just four per cent are currently accepted permanently and 16 per cent given extended leave to stay.

"So what?" many readers might say. Mike is expressing popular sentiment. It's enough that he feeds our resentment.

I feel sure that if Mike actually got to know a few of these people he would want to give a more balanced report.

D Robinson, Oak Mount, Manningham

SIR - With reference to your report on digital hearing aids (January 30). I have now been waiting since June for a digital hearing aid and have been told I will have to wait another two years.

When Bradford Royal Infirmary became one of those 20 hospitals pioneering the new technology, the Government should have provided help so training could be given to staff to bring them up to date with new technology before the scheme was put into place.

Kath Greenwood, Festival Avenue, Windhill, Shipley.

SIR - Initially the people of Bingley were presented with a number of options for improving the town centre once the relief road is opened. Now we are presented with a further range of options and given a totally unrealistic time scale of one week to consider these options and a further week to comment.

One horrendous proposal is to demolish the Arts Centre, right, and build a supermarket and to bulldoze Jubilee Gardens to form the car park. I also note that the chairman of the Better Bingley Campaign is quoted as supporting the supermarket proposal.

As a member of the BBC, I can only say that these must be his personal views as the matter has never been considered by the group and it is certainly not the group view.

Peter Meer, Bramham Road, Bingley.