Letters to the Editor

During the past two years there has been no fewer than seven murders within a mile radius of our house.

The house we have sold has a burglar alarm, CCTV and two dogs after break-ins to house, shed and car and washing stolen from washing lines.

However, while viewing our future purchase in Bradford we noted that since 1966 when the house was built it has never had a burglar-alarm fitted. Presumably because crime is lower in Bradford.

Garden tools are stored in a greenhouse and nothing is stolen. Is this not Utopia?

It is about time we Bradfordians appreciated what a decent city Bradford really is.

M Fairclough, Armley Grange Avenue, Armley, Leeds.

SIR - I agree with Yvonne Middleton about beauty spots (Letters, July 15).

As an avid walker I'm appalled at so-called "country lovers" where in the middle of nowhere, 15 miles from the nearest village, you find cola cans and bottles stuffed into dry stone walls.

But the worst offenders are farmers. Miles from anywhere, you can see large plastic sacks flying around, empty sheep food sacks, also bits of old tractors and cars piled up.

Maybe the farmers see this as their own backyard to do with as they want, and not the beauty spots that we do, but it's an eyesore.

I also agree with Mrs F Warden's letter of the same evening.

I live in Greengates and the same applies. We keep our gardens and streets clean, and sweep up outside our shops.

The Council only pumps money into areas where people dump their three-piece suites and household rubbish on the pavements or throw empty cigarette packets and sweet papers out of moving car windows.

A lot of my friends and family have moved out of Bradford. Maybe that's the answer.

P Jarvis, Ashgrove, Greengates.

SIR - Re Sarah Walsh's article "New flagship school comes under threat" (T&A, June 22), a merger between Bradford Cathedral Community College and City Technology College would be a positive step. It is no secret that Bradford Council have failed our schools dismally.

It is two years since they were heavily criticised by Ofsted. Bradford's secondary schools achieve only 34 per cent of pupils attaining five or more GCSEs at A-C level. The national average is 50 per cent. CTC attained 75 per cent.

CTC does not pick "the cream of the crop". It has to follow Department for Education Employment guidelines which ensure each intake covers the full ability range. Why is CTC so successful? Maybe because it is independent of the Local Authority, it receives its funding from the DfEE and is owned by an independent charity. Its catchment area is practically the whole of Bradford and not just deprived inner-city or affluent middle-class areas.

The ethnic mix of its pupils truly represents Bradford's cultural make-up. CTC can only take 160 children each year; this would double with the merger. Why shouldn't BCCC or any other school have the same opportunities and successes?

I as a parent am not interested in the ill-informed opinions of councillors and governors.

Our children should have the right to a good education. I only hope Education-Bradford (SERCO) does what is best for Bradford.

Helen Jackson, Little Horton Lane, Little Horton, Bradford.

SIR - The T&A recently published details of an exchange of pupils from an Eldwick junior school and a largely Muslim inner-city school. The friendly acceptance by both sets of pupils has been taken as a success to such an extent that Bradford Council is rushing in with similar schemes for another 20 schools.

Several days later a report, evolving from Mrs Cryer's radio interview, elicited the information that Muslims are still marrying foreigners in large numbers, resulting in one Keighley school's September intake having 95 per cent of the children not speaking English.

Very young children readily mix, especially when they share a common language. But to what extent will the Eldwick children have their education retarded by innocent Muslim children, academically three years adrift in development? And what of the five per cent at the Keighley school who do speak English?

All this is entirely due to parents marrying foreigners and speaking only Urdu outside the confines of school.

This enormous problem will never be solved until arranged marriages with foreigners entail non-residence restrictions on foreign married partners until they possess adequate English. And there should be a two-year warning that no infants will be admitted to Bradford education without conversational English.

Les Brotherton, Caroline Street, Saltaire.

SIR - I think it's about time someone shut Barry Wood up. I'm sick of him criticising Bradford Bulls. He can't say a good word for the champions.

I don't know where he gets all his information from. He doesn't seem to know the Council take all the car park money. They also took over running the bars at Odsal. Also City Reserves play games at Odsal.

Surely the Council should make Odsal fit to play our home games. We would soon get all our regulars back there.

G A Hudson, Nurser Place, Bradford 5.

SIR - I read with an element of distaste the report (T&A, July 16) in which David Ward, Liberal Democrat councillor for Idle, called for better training for school governors and talked about mismanagement of our schools.

While I agree that governors need to be mentored and equipped with the facility to manage schools, I believe the comment is rich coming from a man in whose own electoral ward there has been gross mismanagement to the tune of £600,000 or more in taxpayers' money with the decision to open Thorpe Primary School last year.

I feel that before he begins to attack civic-minded volunteers, it would be in order to train the professionals to deal with issues professionally first.

Mark Cranmer, Orchard Grove, Thorpe Edge, Bradford.

SIR - In reply to Iain Morris's letter of July 17, it is important not to mix up drinking with driving. The minimum driving age in America is not 21. That is their minimum drinking age. Their driving age is lower than here at 15 in some states, with supervision, and 16 without.

Increasing the driving age would have little effect on traffic congestion as young drivers are less likely to be able to afford a vehicle. Increasing the driving age would mean that we would still have new drivers who were less competent due to inexperience, but older.

The minimum driving age should stay the same as younger people learn more quickly. To save lives and injury, drivers should be shown graphically the possible consequences of incompetent driving and the dangers of inappropriate speed, not speeding only.

Congestion can only be solved with a good alternative to driving and a better road network such as the Bingley bypass to keep traffic away from pedestrians and get it past towns quickly.

Public transport is expensive, inefficient, inconvenient and inadequate. The fact that we have so much congestion proves that people prefer to drive.

Andrew Southern, Stanley Road, Bradford 2.

SIR - In the past month I have written to a number of organisations enclosing a stamped, addressed envelope. Only two out of six letters have been replied to. That is damnable.

L J Chapman, Barkerend Road, Bradford 3.