SIR - Residents of BD9, prepare yourself for a shock. Saturday morning my car insurance hit the door mat with a thud. The contents were beyond belief and prompted me to call the insurance company straight away.

"Yes sir that's correct. £737."

My payment had more than doubled from £350.

The lady explained that the zones had altered due to last year's troubles and that may have caused the rise! I tried two more companies and I received the same answers. You only have to mention BD9 and you suddenly become a statistic within the insurance companies.

So who can I ask to pay my premium? I never did anything to increase it, but I know a few yobs who did.

One night of lunacy has now affected any law-abiding, insurance-paying person in this city and how many other people in BD9 will receive a bill like this and have to sell their car because they just can't afford to insure it? Or how many more will now risk driving without insurance due to the cost!?

This is a warning to all car owners in BD9, but you just wait until your home insurance is next due!

Andrew Bolt, Hazelhurst Road, Daisy Hill, Bradford 9

SIR - Having read Sally Clifford's article on Hilda Daley's service in the Army which she joined in 1942, I wholeheartedly agree that precious and enduring friendships were made during these days.

However, I must disagree with Hilda's claim that she and her companions were the only Yorkshire girls down South serving in the ATS.

In 1942 I did my basic training in Pontefract Barracks for one month, after which I and eight other Yorkshire girls were posted to Kingston-on-Thames (also in Surrey) where we received training to become teleprinter operators. Several of us were to return some months later to receive further training to become wireless operators.

Once our training finished, we were posted to communication units across the Southern Counties, including some on the South Coast.

During this time I met at least 50 girls from Yorkshire and I am sure I must have missed many more.

If I have misinterpreted Mrs Daley's claim, I apologise.

Marjorie Harwood, Wensleydale Road, Bradford 3.

SIR - I advise Council tenants and taxpayers to watch out for those pulling the wool over our eyes.

The housing stock transfer could, if we are not careful, become nothing more than a cosmetic exercise. Will the said "volunteers" on the boards have a say or will they just be puppets?

What say will they have? What liability will they have? Who will pick them and on what criteria?

Up to now we have only been told what the powers-that-be wish us to know.

"Stock transfer" should mean stock transfer. The only volunteers I can see coming forward are activists with their own axe to grind.

S Walsh, Church Street, Bingley.

SIR - Re Mr I Khan's letter of January 1. Some 30 years ago Bradford Education Committee ran Language Centres. All non-English-speaking children were admitted until they achieved a sufficiently competent level of English to enable them to enter mainstream primary education.

This allowed reception and early-years teachers to approach their classes from an equal and fairly drawn base-line.

Then, in what we at the primary chalk-face considered at the time to be an act of lunacy, prompted by the onset of "political expediency" and supposed lack of funding, the Council closed down all the language centres, saying that it was not PC to cater for children with "special needs" in separate establishments.

This included many other special needs, sending certain physically-handicapped children also into mainstream schools without the facilities and staffing required for this specialised area of teaching.

Consequently, reception teachers with no knowledge of, or training in, Asian languages found themselves trying to teach basic English communication skills to rising fours and fives in addition to all the other aspects and intricacies endemic to the job - socialisation, numeracy and literacy skills essential to the foundations for reading.

This is one of the root causes of fallen literacy standards.

Elizabeth M Holbrook, Bradford Road, Menston.

SIR - I was pleased to read the letter from Philip Coote of Odsal about Manningham Mills. There was a similar letter some two weeks ago.

At last there are some signs that the people of Bradford understand the real position with these crumbling buildings, which is more than you can say for the city officials and Yorkshire Forward.

In typical public servant manner, they have now decided, after three years of vacillation, to appoint at huge cost consultants to advise as to what should be done with the buildings when the owners, who are a property company of high repute, are ready and willing to proceed with development themselves in a manner that has been well publicised.

This is a company wanting to invest in Bradford.

Can our officials not see a good thing when it is under their noses? Think of the risk they are running when this company could just walk away and leave them back at square one?

Remember, the stone is valuable and once the buildings have fallen down, which some other consultants said they would do in two years some four years ago, then there is still a site to re-develop.

R G Jennings, Priestley Hall, Lady Park Avenue, Bingley.

SIR - May I refer to the letter "Religion is a habit" (T&A, January 5).

As far as I can see, the lack of religion and belief in spiritual things is actually causing today's society to fail. People have become morally corrupt, greedy, violent and selfish.

Religion is very important for the soul. It also keeps people on the straight and narrow.

I would say religion is a habit, but one we should be getting back into, not out of as Mr E Firth suggests.

R Halliday, Crosleywood Road, Bingley.

SIR - In a recent T&A, it was reported that Bradford CHA Rambling & Social Club would be walking from Bradford to Saltaire tomorrow - the first of a series of walks which will see members walking from Bradford to Edinburgh.

We plan to arrive in Edinburgh mid-2003 in time to celebrate the centenary of the founding of Bradford CHA. Members of the club have already undertaken a series of enjoyable walks from Bradford to London to celebrate the Millennium.

I am researching the history of Bradford CHA and if any readers have any programmes, notices, photographs etc. relating to the club, I would greatly appreciate the loan of such items. I can be contacted on 01274 568933.

Mrs I Hudson, Myrtle Avenue, Bingley.