SIR - A much-publicised report issued recently identifies a failure of leadership as the major cause of social unrest in northern cities. This echoes a view widely held about Bradford and expressed in the Ouseley Report.

The many words written may be worthy and interesting but only have real value if they led to action to improve matters urgently and dramatically.

The failure of leadership identified is historical. The point is not then to shower abuse on those presently in office at the Council (members and officers) or working diligently in the private sector of their communities. What rests with them is not fundamentally the blame but the challenge to do better.

Bradford is often criticised but the reality is that across the district are communities with a great hunger for a better future for them and their children. We have heard a lot about "separate lives" much of which is true but not the whole story.

When Prince Andrew visited Bradford before Christmas he met a number of people living and working here. Brought together by St Williams Foundation, an extremely diverse group met to discuss how they wish to utilise this opportunity.

Their overwhelming conclusion was how easy it was to agree on what united and not divided them. They all wanted to see change.

I said that the present leaders, in the widest sense should not be criticised for what they have inherited.

They will deserve the harshest condemnation if they do not grasp the opportunities and to satisfy the hunger across Bradford for progress into 2002.

David Scougall, Tetley Street, Woolston House, Bradford.

SIR - As an immigrant from New Zealand, I find it quite galling that Bradford is being called racist towards other nationalities.

What I find when talking to people of this city is that they want equal rights across the cultures. What I find is not racism but lack of understanding.

When I came to this country, I had to have a sponsorship and enough money to take me through to the time I started work. I was told that I could not get any benefits until I had my NI number.

But I have discovered that a lot of immigrants get benefits as soon as they arrive here (not asylum seekers). They also get houses supplied.

The community of Bradford as a whole is not racist but I do believe the Council and benefits agencies are.

It's time they treated everyone as equal.

K Fry, Beacon Road, Wibsey.

SIR - Mike Priestley's Looking Back (T&A, December 19) evoked many memories of my own childhood, at a slightly later date, the early 1930s.

The photograph of the seven children from Wapping Road School clearly illustrated the dire poverty that existed in the Twenties and Thirties nationwide.

How many children attend school these days anywhere in mainland Britain in bare feet, or with toes peeping through holes in their foot wear as depicted in the photo?

The Welfare State, from time to time, gets heavily criticised but hopefully we will not be faced with such dire poverty, for today's children are better fed, nourished and clothed than many of their predecessors, and for that alone we should be very thankful.

Of course, we still have poverty in some guise or another in Britain today. Poverty in a lack of discipline, respect for other people and their property, poverty of manners, and respect for the elderl.

Perhaps, just perhaps, some of the apparently "disillusioned" youngsters of today with their modern fashion designer labels, CD-roms, mobile telephones etc will look at the photograph and give thanks, at least, for the material assets which they possess in abundance.

Donald Firth, Harrogate Street, Undercliffe.

SIR - It is not surprising that there is more delay in restoring this mausoleum (Listers Mill) which no longer serves any useful purpose and is far too costly to restore, inevitably being a gross waste of the public money which will have to be poured in when there are many more worthy causes needing support.

This obsession with the past, while clearly acceptable in certain instances, is doing a disservice to the city in this particular location and a positive way forward needs to be sought which realistically can only be to demolish the whole building and construct much-needed housing and community facilities.

This site is not a Saltaire or a Haworth where the market will support old mill conversions.

Bradford is desperately short of "brownfield" housing sites and should grasp the nettle to redevelop the site and seek to have demolition approved.

Philip M Coote, Rooley Crescent, Odsal, Bradford.

SIR - Muhajud Ali Islam (Letters, December 19) decided to have a go at the Jews. How original! His primitive tribal mentality seeks another "tribe" to attack. It is precisely this tribal attitude which defeats hopes of peace and co-operation here in Bradford.

I am sick of hearing about "communities" and "community leaders". It is not the case that all issues revolve around religious lines of demarcation.

Britain is not a tribal society. There is one community, here, embracing people of many faiths, and it is time for everybody to join it.

A good starting point would be loyalty to our country, and respect for its laws.

L A Hobsbaum, Willow Crescent, Bradford.

SIR - A happy new year to all in Bradford from New Zealand.

Re Councillor Hawksworth's sudden discovery that Bradford is 60 per cent countryside. Could she please refer to the Council's Countryside Service and its admirable staff, which was run before I ventured to these far-off shores by Danny Jackson.

This service promoted Bradford and district countryside but was continually underfunded and run down. I am sure the staff and volunteers, of which I am proud to have been a part, will be happy to put Councillor Hawkesworth right.

Please refer also to the hundreds if not thousands of people who attended the guided walks programme or took part in footpath maintenance. We have done it for years!

Mick Tromans, Harper Street, Papakura, Auckland, New Zealand.