Letters to the Editor

Surely the only statistic that matters is what we see, hear and experience on a daily basis in the community. In Bradford, certainly in East Bowling the perception is more crime, however it is recorded and presented. Only last week the local post office was robbed at gunpoint.

The addition of a beat bobby to this area is of course welcome, although sadly this would appear to be a short-term measure in response to a residents' petition.

The recording of crime statistics is starting to resemble the unemployment figures in the Eighties and early Nineties, an exercise in information management rather than a genuine attempt to inform the wider public.

We can' "blame the system" but I would suggest what is lacking is a police presence on the streets, ie community beat bobbies. This may be anachronistic in "modern policing" but they work. We are entitled to more than snappy soundbites and selective statistics.

Rupert Oliver, chairman, East Bowling Regeneration, Lister Avenue, East Bowling.

SIR - Instead of planning for public transport and sustainability, Bradford is doing the opposite.

At Thornbury, bus passengers have to walk across a huge roundabout and a further 200 yards through a car park to get to the entertainments venue, and then round to the rear of the complex.

From the Interchange to Cineworld, bus passengers have either to use the lift down a level - only to climb uphill again - or cut illegally across the bus entrance.

Bingley is being totally sacrificed to the car. Town Centre options presented again last week include another sea of car parking. The massive scale of the new trunk road will bring no relief to bus passengers.

In the Sixties, several progressive town planners elsewhere designed housing which separated children and pedestrians from traffic. Decades later, we are still waiting for radically safer housing patterns. Bradford has little or no transport or housing that significantly contributes to sustainability after at least a decade of public inquiry interventions.

Do we not need a new set of councillors and planners with the vision and ability to provide a district to be proud of? One that is ecologically more benign?

Graham Carey, Granville Terrace, Bingley.

SIR - Re the imminent demolition of Provincial House. It is a pity that more foresight was not shown at its conception in 1970. It is quoted as being "A blot on the landscape" and "The first significant part of the regeneration of Bradford."

Thirty years ago it was regarded as avant-garde and worth the huge expenditure as an example of functional architecture, and criticism has been minimal in the intervening years. In any case, was not the regeneration supposed to have commenced much earlier with the demolition of Swan Arcade, Kirkgate Market, Mechanics Institute, and other fine buildings at the hands of the far-sighted civic vandals, then entrusted with Bradford's development?

A total of £800,000 for its destruction? What a waste of ratepayers' money! Also, as usual, its replacement is to be more bars and eating-houses. As I have asked before in these columns, who will patronise these palaces of indulgence, as they proliferate ad nauseum? There are only so many that the place can bear.

Perhaps the mention of a small arts centre is the one redeeming feature. For the time being, however, apparently we shall have to gawp at our own version of Ground Zero. The Odeon next?

Derek Mozley, Moorhead Terrace, Shipley.

SIR - Further to your letter from G&L Pearson (July 5) regarding wheel clamping in Haworth. Firstly, we have had no contact with the lady, through the appeals procedure, therefore we cannot identify the vehicle concerned. However, why should the lady complain? She runs a boarding house and expects people to pay. Why does she penalise Haworth when she doesn't pay. She may have spent £200 in the village, but did she try and cheat the car park for 60p?

The signs are very clear, we only clamp vehicles that are not displaying a ticket or display a ticket which is out of time.

We allow many minutes over the expired time before the vehicle is clamped, in fact, exactly the same time local authorities give. So what is the problem? We will not allow a vehicle to be wheel clamped unless the rules are broken. We will always refund any money if the clamping firm do not abide by the regulations.

With regard to not accepting a cheque or credit card, we offer this facility to everyone; for us it is the best way.

Finally, why do people pay for one hour and expect to park longer for free.

By the way, the Council has not tried every legal way to stop us wheel clamping, or if it has it is news to me.

E R Evans, Haworth Car Parks.

SIR - With regard to "New move to cut teen pregnancies" (T&A, July 3). Parents must object urgently to the health and education authority's announced plans for the provision to schoolchildren, without parental consent, of condoms, contraceptive pills and the abortion-inducing 'morning after pill'.

The whole teenage pregnancy prevention strategy is based on the assumption that, if only we can teach young people about sex in more explicit detail and make contraception more easily available to them, there will be fewer pregnancies. There is no basis for making this assumption.

The lack of any measurable evidence of effectiveness is not surprising when we consider the ineffectiveness of health education generally (diet, smoking, drugs) and the extent to which young people's attitudes towards sex are the result of exposure to the mass media, advertising and peer groups.

The pill carries serious health risks, the earlier the age the greater the risk.

The spokespersons for Belle Vue Girls' School and Immanuel College, who oppose the proposed scheme, are to be congratulated, particularly the one for Immanuel with the salvo, "It is not what school is for!"

Austin Jennings, Sunny Brow Lane, Bradford 9.

SIR - As the country rides the patriotic wave following the world cup/Queen's Jubilee, isn't it heartening to know the Government is joining in?

David Blunkett has urged us to be proud of our flags and to reclaim them from racists and extremists. What nonsense! It's just typical Labour spin, to twist the truth around to their point of view.

Rather than blaming the British National Party et al, the people of this country should be reclaiming these flags of ours, from numerous lunatic PC Labour councils up and down the land. It is they who have proclaimed it racist, offensive, xenophobic, etc, to fly the St George's and Union flags in the first place.

It's time the unpatriotic were made to feel guilty rather than the vast majority of us who are rightly English and proud. Keep flying the flags!

Stephen Smith, Woodhall Avenue, Thornbury.

SIR - Several times recently, it has been stated that the government is planning to fine patients who do not keep or cancel medical appointments.

Patients who are unable to attend are asked to inform the appointments department, but sometimes it is impossible to contact them, despite making repeated telephone calls. Would it not be unfair to fine patients if the appointments department cannot guarantee to take their calls?

D Fickling, Wellington Road, Wilsden.