SIR - Further to the letter which appeared under the headline "Police shame" (T&A, December 13). I think it would be useful for me to clarify a few points as it is clear that the writer of the letter was not in full possession of the facts when he chose to openly criticise Bradford police officers.

The writer is critical of two officers after seeing them chase and arrest a man in the city centre. The man was taken away in a police car. The letter writer says he did not look like a robber, didn't carry a weapon and asks why he was treated in such a way.

In fact, this man was wanted for a serious assault and for two offences of making threats to kill. When he was arrested he was carrying a sheath knife. I applaud the fact that the officers took such positive action.

This incident may have attracted a lot of attention from passers-by but the police have a job to do. When and where opportunities arise to arrest wanted persons is unpredictable; the point is that officers have to act positively when faced with such circumstances whether these are at 3pm in the city centre or at 3am down some dark alley.

I hope that those people who witnessed the arrest will appreciate that arresting suspects, regardless of where they may be at the time, has to be our number one priority.

Det Supt Geoff Dodd, Bradford South Police Crime Manager

SIR - I'm loath to contradict the experts at Bradford's Industrial Museum but your report (December 9) described middens as outside toilets. Perhaps your reporter got it wrong but the toilets were closets and middens were rubbish tips.

There were several in Haworth, one being an open stone enclosed midden in the yard at The Black Bull. I remember the horror when my smartly-dressed young nephew fell in on my wedding day. He emerged covered in the soot deposited there by our chimney sweep, a decidedly unsmart wedding guest!

Muriel Crook, Ryecroft, Harden.

SIR - At a time when militant Muslim extremism continues to be the greatest threat to world peace and stability, what is the justification for allowing nearly 2,000 more Muslim immigrants into this country following the closure of the Sangatte refugee camp?

Around 60,000 failed applicants were allowed to remain last year subject to appeal and it is unlikely that any of these will now be returned home, despite the lack of any real or genuine reason for asylum.

Would not the £125 billion earmarked for the two million new homes set to house these failed applicants over the next ten years be better spent on the NHS or seriously underfunded public services such as the police, fire and ambulance?

Is it right that the Government ask British servicemen and women to be prepared to sacrifice their lives in the fight against Muslim-sponsored terrorism, and then with the same stroke of the pen, go on to accommodate thousands of Muslim immigrants in this already congested isle?

A J Clarke, Halifax Road, Odsal.

SIR - Councillor Greenwood wants us all to learn lessons from the Bradford riots (T&A, December 12). But who should actually learn lessons apart from the thugs who were properly penalised in a Court of law?

If they don't learn their lesson they have only themselves to blame as they stare into a bleak future. Surely the peace-loving majority of the population have nothing to learn apart from all the unofficial "No Go" areas in the district. Indeed, they have been raising concerns for years about street hoods to no avail.

It was just as if the authorities wanted to pretend it wasn't happening.

The police and the courts have no lessons to be learned on this occasion, having been magnificent in both detection and sentencing. They proved at long last that there is some fair justice in Britain.

If the councillor is intimating that the whole population can learn lessons from the riots, he is deflecting the issue from the real culprits.

By all means learn lessons about school segregation, Anti-Nazi League/BNP demonstrations and other mitigating circumstances, but don't preach to the mainstream who just want to rub along.

B A Houseman, Coach Road, Baildon.

SIR - How many oldies who worked at John Smith's Mill in Preston Street during the early 1940s remember the Christmas party? We used to dance and sing, make the costumes and really have a good time. We were given tickets to go to the Alhambra.

I wish everyone who knows me a very happy Christmas and hold those memories.

Hilda Frost, Haugh Lane, Woodbridge, Suffolk.

SIR - Who is kidding whom? If Bradford has "good" local government, then we will eat the Audit Commission's hat.

In 11 days flat the commission fiddled in City Hall, beguiled by its "strong" administrative and political leadership into the belief that Bradford has "coherent goals", "vision", "focus", "high citizen involvement and satisfaction", "good community engagement and cohesion", "sound financial management", "very open and honest self-assessment" and "a capacity to learn form experience" etc, etc.

This is not the Bradford we know and love. The Audit Commission's conclusions just do not correspond with the daily experience of most Bradfordians - social exclusion, grinding poverty, unemployment, run-down housing, low pay, tight budgets, dilapidated social services, dismal educational provision, officious patronisation, disintegration of communities and high absenteeism from local democracy.

There is a BAD social and cultural detachment of ordinary people from the City Hall elite. We confidently predict that with a "good" rating, our "strong" civic leadership will be looking to bump up its performance-related pay. This will fuel existing alienation.

Vicious circles are not broken by the feathering of nests. The effect of the Audit Commission's complacent report will be to drive an even greater wedge between governors and governed.

George and Margaret Riseborough, The Mayroyd, off Roper Lane, Queensbury.

SIR - While it is very admirable that youngsters are encouraged to give money to charity ('It's balloon bonanza', T&A, December 16), I would wish to point out the dangers of releasing thousands of balloons into the environment. Many marine animals have been found with balloons in their digestive systems. Similarly, badgers and cows have also died as a result of eating balloons that land in fields.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) has teamed up with the RSPCA, the Tidy Britain Group and the National Farmers Union to produce a fact-sheet on the impacts of balloon releases and to seek a voluntary end to them.

Fact-sheets are available from the MCS (on receipt of an A5 SAE) at 9 Gloucester Road, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire HR9 5BU (tel. 01989 566017).

It seems extraordinary that while one can be fined for dropping a piece of litter on the pavement, it appears to be perfectly legal to release thousands of hazardous items into the air. What goes up eventually has to come down.

Perhaps a compromise would be biodegradable balloons, if these would be feasible?

Atma Trasi, Kirkgate, Shipley.

SIR - I have recently cancelled a non-emergency operation at Airedale General Hospital because of their anti-smoking policies.

I find it absurd that there cannot be facilities for smokers considering we pay for the NHS!

Before the NHS was spawned, doctors were poor neighbours in the community with few patients who could afford them.

The irony today is that without the smokers, doctors would be living a little less luxuriously and would be going to work on bicycles.

Alan Holdsworth, Chippendale Court, Bradford Road, Menston.