SIR - With regard to your recent reports about the possible closure of St. George's Hall. Will they never learn? There is still much bad feeling with regard to the loss of Swan Arcade, Kirkgate Market, the Mechanics' Institute, the old Central Library and much more of our heritage.

It appears they are hell bent on losing the bit that is left. If a large venue is required with all facilities, what is wrong with the 2,300-seater New Victoria cinema building (lately the Odeon)? It was good enough for the Beatles, and would cost less to reinstate than the building of a brand-new facility, which after a few years will cost too much to maintain.

Please help us to keep what little is left of our heritage. The desecration of the past should have been a lesson. Short-term prestige is not the answer.

J A Schofield, Haigh Street, Dudley Hill, Bradford.

SIR - Re your report "Last Waltz for St George's". I agree that many famous people have appeared there but what some readers possibly don't know is that it spent several years as a third-rate cinema.

My father Robert F Cook and two friends went personally to see J Arthur Rank, the owner, just after the war and persuaded him to sell it to Bradford, which he did for £30,000.

Surely it could be altered inside instead of pulling it down.

Mrs Jocelyn Fearnley, Syke Road, Heaton, Bradford.

l EDITOR'S NOTE: No decision has been taken to close St George's Hall. A feasibility study is taking places into the possibility of creating a new purpose-built regional concert venue in the North. The future of St George's Hall is being looked at in that context.

SIR - It is very annoying when others try to take credit for somebody else's hard work. When I was elected in 1999 one of the manifesto pledges was: "Police presence - to continue to fight for community policing."

Councillor Michael Walls (who was elected in 2000), Councillor Stuart Hanson (who was elected in 2002) and I have been working with both residents and Bradford North police to increase community policing.

Firstly, we gained a full-time community police officer, PC Ackroyd. Now after many years the police box on New Park Road will shortly be reopened after refurbishment costing £15,000. Together as a partnership with residents and the police we will continue to improve community policing.

All the BNP can do is deliver leaflets misleading residents into thinking it was they who are responsible for the improvements. However, it won't work and they are wasting their time because I know the residents will see through their propaganda and lies.

Councillor Andrew Smith (Con, Queensbury), Chapel Street, Queensbury.

SIR - We were sorry to hear about the recent experience of D Petyt in Lister Park (Letters, August 9). An early request that The Friends of Lister Park (FLiP) made was for a quick-access phone number to be posted around the park so people can report incidents like the one Mr Petyt witnessed. We'll continue to pursue the matter.

FLiP can also report an early decision to seek the views of young people about the park. Last month we ran an event at the Boating Pavilion Coffee Shop where volunteers quizzed 135 youngsters from different backgrounds.

We had help from the Manningham/Girlington Youth Partnership, Bradford Youth Development Partnership and the Council.

So far, it is clear that some young people are also worried about hooligans and gangs. Many suggest more visible staff. A number would like to have their say at meetings. The recent improvements rate highly. The results will be published as soon they are ready. Then we can press for action.

FLiP's volunteer members are working within inevitable time constraints. We all need to pitch in, as is appropriate, so that those who "test the boundaries" understand the limits.

Anyone interested in the future of Lister Park is welcome to attend the next FLiP meeting which will be on Wednesday, August 28 (5pm) at the Lister Park Lodge.

Joy R Leach (chairman, Friends of Lister Park), Wilmer Road, Heaton, Bradford

SIR - At midday the other day I travelled from Saltaire to Steeton in one of Arriva's bright new trains.

Some time on the journey I realised that every window in my compartment and every other piece of glass had been scratched in arabesque movements.

When I pointed out the shame of this to one of the guards he told me that I should see what had been done with black marker pen in the toilets.

My sympathies go to Arriva Trains who have spent millions trying to give of their best to paying customers.

Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire.

SIR - I read with disgust that trainee Nurse Rachel Simcock has been refused accommodation in a nurses' home because the Government is giving preference to a nurse from abroad.

It's easy to see why there are shortages of English nurses. It would seem to me that Government policies are contradictory.

It is saying in one breath it can't find enough English nurses and in the other it's turning them away.

My advice to Rachel is to make a complaint to the Health Secretary in London. It may make him see sense.

R Halliday, Crosleywood Road, Bingley.

SIR - With reference to the proposed closure of Hoyle Court School due to falling figures. Houses have been or are due to be built on two former school sites in Baildon and houses with five and six bedrooms are being built on the old Assessment Centre in Tong Park.

Do the Council suppose that no children will be living in these new houses?

If the closure goes ahead, I propose that councillors who vote for it pay back or do not claim their allowances until the million pounds plus that has been laid out on the school is put back in the council coffers.

M Davey, Park Lane, Baildon.