SIR - I feel I must write on behalf of my mother who has been a resident at Greenacres for over two years. This is not just an "old folks home", it is a home for elderly people with dementia who require special care. It is a place where they are looked after by people who are fully trained and experienced in looking after people with this problem.

The residents can wander around without getting into any trouble and not being confined to one place. When my mother was in a previous home, although it was very good, they could not cope with her problem. On one occasion she managed to get out and was brought back safely in a taxi .

Greenacres is in a very nice, peaceful area of Bradford, ideal for the elderly. Also I suppose very popular for housing development! Is this why there are now three empty beds and they are only taking short-term stays? Has the decision already been made?

It just seems that Bradford Council and Social Services are playing God because most of these old people will not survive all the upset and upheaval which this rehousing will cause.

Arlene Speight, Hall Street, Wibsey, Bradford.

SIR - I see our locally-elected reps are planning to close senior citizens' care homes penalising the very people who fought for our freedom of today.

Nothing these people ask for should be denied them. They are the true British salt of the earth.

One can only despair both locally and nationally at the way these elected reps look after everybody but the people who put them there.

Locally they are chasing for glory spending all our brass on the farcical culture caper (which Bradford won't win).

The national reps are no better. Their handling of the influx of people flowing into Britain and the thousands of millions of pounds spent on them at the expense of the electorate is nothing short of scandalous.

Why we British are so benevolent is beyond belief. We will get a shock soon!

Derek Wright, Westbury Street, Bradford 4.

SIR - I was most interested to read Chris Caisley's comments regarding the live television coverage of the Bulls' home games (T&A, July 24).

The record crowd for a Super League game is something in excess of 24,000. That match was played at Odsal between the Bulls and Leeds on September 3, 1999, and was shown live on Sky.

The Bulls' last home game against Wakefield was not televised and yet it attracted a crowd of less than 9,000. These facts hardly support Mr Caisley's assertion that the team's home gates are suffering to a great extent through being shown live on television.

A more significant factor in the decline in attendances is Valley Parade. The venue is not popular with many fans, especially when matches finish late in the evening.

In a perfect world the Bulls would gain both the big crowds and the lucrative sponsorship they deserve. However, the way things are going it seems that they cannot have both.

Mr Caisley will have to deal with the problem while accepting that neither the local authority nor the club's fans are going to hand him everything he is asking for.

John Tattersall, Otley Road, Eldwick.

SIR - I've no doubt that, every time I write to you on cycling, a number of your readers will sigh, "Oh, not him again". Well it is me, again.

Our Kids Saturday Bike Club gives children the opportunity of riding and having fun, safely segregated from traffic, on a purpose-designed, closed-road circuit at the Richard Dunn Centre. Or so we thought.

On Saturday, there was a long queue on Rooley Avenue because of road works. A selfish, stupid, moronic, impatient, half-witted, white-van man with the IQ of a brain-damaged gerbil took a short cut by opening the gate on to the circuit and drove round it because he couldn't be bothered to wait with the other traffic.

Had our kids not just finished racing, there could have been tragic consequences. He was, of course, too bone idle to close the gate behind him, leaving it blocking the track.

Mike Healey, Dyehouse Road, Oakenshaw

SIR - When I read Anila Baig's feature "Why I want to take two wives" (July 22), I was so happy to know that I was not the only person to be in such a scenario.

Like Zenab, I too have married a man who is already married. I'm 31 and so is my husband.

He has been married to his first wife for over 11 years but like Hareen he was forced to marry her. He has never loved his wife and has been too frightened to say anything to his family.

Arranged and forced marriages are still going strong in the Asian culture. I wish that parents thinking of taking such steps could meet people who have suffered emotionally and physically due to unsuccessful arranged marriages. That may just prompt them to re-think forcing their children into miserable marriages.

Shaista Rizui, Thornton Road, Bradford.

SIR - As a deaf person who uses a British Sign Language, I was pleased to read Hageena Shazadi Aurangreb's letter pointing out the problems we have to go through.

I have been fighting for a very long time for the rights of deaf people but we are still denied "Access to All" information.

Only this week, I took my disabled grandchild to Halifax shopping. While there, everybody was being told "all buses are out", through a few manual signs.

Because all traffic was held up where they were, a number of yellow-coated men were moving about talking to people.

I tried to tell them I was deaf, and was trying to find out what's wrong! Believe this or not, they tried shouting down my ears.

I felt traumatised at not knowing what was happening and the poor kid sensed this.

N Barker, Bartle Lane, Bradford 7.

SIR - I am a firm believer in "best practice" and applaud the decision to look at the best way of managing the Council's portfolio of land and property.

However, we should be made aware of just how badly it has been managed in the past - what potential revenue has been lost and who was and (God forbid) still is responsible for the failures.

Chief Executive Ian Stewart says it was not Council staff to blame. Will he please tell us then who was and what has happened to them.

Surely we can use these facts to help us believe that responsibility and accountability mean something in local government.

William Oxley, Beck Lane, Bingley.

SIR - The other day someone was impatiently knocking on the door (odd when there is a bell!). I answered and was greeted by someone selling something, possibly an electric company selling gas or a gas company selling electricity or perhaps it was a phone company selling both OR it may even have been a double glazing salesman selling onions - who knows?

The thing is, he greeted me as "mate" and kept calling me "mate" in a fairly brusque manner. I interrupted and pointed out I was "not his mate".

Before I could tell him to carry on, he snarled something about "white racists" etc etc and stormed out of the gate. It was then I noticed he was Afro Caribbean.

The point is I would have corrected his unprofessional mode of address whatever colour he was but sadly as usual the racist slur is made against anybody white daring to criticise anyone of a different colour. The race card is a powerful weapon!

Nick Carroll, Northcote Terrace, Bradford 2

SIR - I was interested to read the letter from Mrs F Dunn re the QAs.

Having served as a sick berth attendant in the Royal Navy in the 1940s I fully endorse her comments. These ladies were the backbone of the medical branches of all three Armed Forces.

It brings back memories of the Naval Hospital RNH Haslar in Portsmouth where the QAs were Sister Tutors for training ward sisters, theatre sisters etc.

Very humane, these ladies, and efficiency personified.

Leonard Archdeacon, Netherlands Avenue, Odsal.