Letters to the Editor

For the last six months the people in Annie Street, Shipley, have been living a nightmare. Every weekend a group of yobs living in the street get drunk and play music all night. They shout and swear. One of my neighbours moved out of her flat to stay with her parents because her young children are terrified of staying there.

My daughter and family who live in the street were awake all night recently. My daughter is very ill and she can do without all of this trouble every weekend.

My son-in-law went out to ask them to quieten things down and got a mouthful of disgusting abuse. He rang the police and they said that they don't come out to domestic trouble and gave him a number to ring.

He rang and it was an answer machine, so that was a waste of time. Could somebody please tell me what are people supposed to do to get some kind of help?

By the way, the Council also know the problem but they do nothing about it either.

L Cartwright, Lilac Grove, Shipley.

SIR - In view of the continuing difficulties experienced by our railways in terms of cancelled trains and staff shortages, it is clear that there must be a radical change of concept for public transport in general.

While the business approach may eradicate elements of inefficiency, it is unable to meet the large-scale capital investment needed to modernise our railways in particular.

We tend to regard negatively public investment and subsidy, as if a particular industry or service in receipt of it is being run inefficiently.

The railways are part of the infrastructure and their efficient and reliable running are integral to the wider society. By having reliable trains with increased capacity to carry passengers, usage will increase, reducing car dependency and road congestion.

This would reduce delays, pollution and the ill-health caused by exhaust fumes, saving the country more than the cost of the original investment.

The case for increased public investment is overwhelming and yet the political will remains negligible.

It is time for changed priorities!

Alec Suchi, Allerton Road, Allerton.

SIR - I was very pleased to see in the T&A of December 26 that Ann Cryer, MP for Keighley, has spoken up about democracy. Here is a real gutsy woman who has compassion and foresight, a real politician's biggest asset (observe, you reps who mark time and get top pay).

The electorate are fed up with governments who make manifestos, are voted for and then go to sleep. What is the point of having a democratic vote on a promised issue, winning the vote and passing it on to the House of Lords who over-rule it? We don't need an elected government in this case.

The more people see the weak efforts by the elected reps, the more they see that we need a new party, especially now that we hear that the Conservative Party is going defunct.

If we lose the opposition party (now Conservative) the Lib-Dems will be the opposition party. This leaves room for another party and we all know who that will be!

The country may appear to be the fourth richest of the world economies but won't be for much longer as we are being led by a group of misguided individuals into an abyss.

Derek Wright, Westbury Street, Bradford 4.

SIR - I have a message for that woman who has just been released from prison for demonstrating against our nuclear capability.

It is fools like me who went to war to defend the freedom that allows her to demonstrate. Otherwise we would be a defeated nation now, and she would have no rights.

Why doesn't she go to Pakistan, Iraq or China and demonstrate against their nuclear capabilities? I bet she wouldn't come back alive.

However, it doesn't matter, because when we accept the euro and become a member of the European Community proper, she will have no rights. We will have to do what the Germans, Belgians and French tell us to do, and when.

After we join, we will become just a small state off the coast of mighty Europe.

I wonder now why we went to war. The bleeding-heart do-gooders never deserved us. They are letting our enemies in at the back door. Germany wins after all.

N Brown, Peterborough Place, Undercliffe.

SIR - I would like to remind all your readers that nine years ago we allowed the powers-that-be to demolish a landmark of this city, the Alexandra Hotel. This year we will see the demolition of the old Odeon cinema and again we have learned nothing.

The towers of the old Odeon are worth preserving instead of replacing them with a design resembling stacked shoe boxes!

In this new era of multi-cultural awareness, you would think we would keep them as they fit in with our modern domed skyline. Never more have they ever looked in place with the surroundings!

The Odeon site would suit a covered market, it's in the flat basin of the city and can be accessed by everyone young and old instead of the mountainous climb to the top of the city.

We do not need more bars and clubs. Please stop and think for a change, councillors. We do not need a city full of drunks and revellers leaving night-time litter and damage to property.

This city wants to be a good day out, not a good place to get drunk and cause trouble.

Andrew Bolt, Hazelhurst Road, Daisy Hill, Bradford 9

SIR - Reading about Miss Colley being attacked made me think about the punishment.

Naturally some stupid do-gooders will say that if the birch was ordered it's cruel. But what about the beating Miss Colley got? Isn't that cruel? Or was she just a punchball for a thug?

Until someone gets the punishment right, no-one will be safe anywhere.

So as a New Year resolution, let's have the birch and borstal for all such cases.

D Burnett, Great Horton Road, Great Horton.

SIR - If it is "prehistoric" to enjoy the diversity of the many cultures in the world - and the city of Bradford - and refusing to believe in a bland conformity to an "Englishness" that never was, then I have just one word to say to R A Nelson ("Honest Mission", T&A Letters, December 27): "Ug".

I don't know how that translates to Urdu, but in modern English it means: "Stop blaming ethnicity for problems which are caused by poverty and the growth of drugs-dealing in our modern cities."

Karl Dallas, Church Green, Bradford 8

SIR - I was not surprised to see the reaction of Ms Farah Iqbal (Letters, December 28) in response to my letter. It just shows that free speech is a fundamental principal of democracy in which I was exercising my right to express my faith.

Steven Mills, Harrogate Street, Undercliffe.