SIR - How can a company which has in its possession 25,000 stations, over 10,000 shops and 20,000 miles of railway track, assets valued at around £5 billion, be declared bankrupt?

Add assets to that valuation, with all that it implies in turn-over potential, loan guarantees, to say nothing of profitability, and they must signify a company that is very far from bankruptcy unless somebody is exerting extreme malevolent pressure on them. And we have Law Courts to sort that out!

Contrary to popular opinion, the shareholders own Railtrack - all 250,000 of them, which includes about 10,000 railway employees, many pensioners who have put their savings in, to say nothing of managed pension funds, which probably also includes railway workers.

They own Railtrack, just as you and I own our houses. Just suppose you had, say, a drainage problem at your home that was a health and safety risk.

You negotiate with the Council, or your building society for a loan to do the work, and get some agreement. Then the loan offer is withdrawn and the Council, without prior notice, steps in and takes over your house because you cannot afford to do these major repairs.

It couldn't happen? What do you think has just happened to Railtrack?

Alan Carcas, Cornmill Lane, Liversedge.

SIR - I would like to thank Bradford Council for the invitation they sent me, to put forward my suggestions to help them decide how to spend the budget of £500 million.

Well, I must decline because if I attend and they pick my brains, they will still do the opposite.

Over the years I have read reports in this very newspaper where they have ridden roughshod over the rate-payers whose opinions they have discounted.

This city is run down and left to die, and they do nothing. They are always banging the drum about the Capital of Culture. Well, sorry, but I have more culture in my little finger.

If they would like a few tips, well the only one I can give them is to spend a little of that money and buy a lot of sweeping brushes, then give them out as presents at Christmas to all the shops in Bradford, with of course the order that they have to sweep their shop fronts, and move all the litter which is all over the place! They are the worst culprits as regards breeding vermin.

Barbara Rudd, Roger Court, Undercliffe.

SIR - Congratulations to the T&A for again publicising the Jenny Lane matter in Baildon. Like Mike Craine, I also am a member of the Roman Catholic church, and objected to the stance taken by the church's spokesman when the matter was raised in August.

In that report, the spokesman criticised the Council for using council tax funds for another public inquiry. Why does he use church funds to pursue such an unpopular course of action which is against the public interest?

This time, Mr Damant uses the Charity Commission's rules. There is another way open to him. Let him consult the church's recent document "The Common Good" and hear the words of the Gospel read out publicly in all Catholic churches a few weeks ago.

In speaking about money, Jesus stated one good use was to win friends with money. How much, and for what reason, does Mr Damant need to raise funds for the church at the expense of the local community?

Some years ago, the Bishop of Leeds asked Catholics to fund major projects and several million pounds were given.

Do this again, and allow Jenny Lane to be.

A E Harris, Ormonde Drive, Allerton.

SIR - I refer to Councillor Reynolds's letter (October 11). The potential for ID cards is massive and the way in which Coun Reynolds dismisses them is ridiculous.

Yes, humans would make the cards and errors would occur, and his suggestion that cards should have DNA on them would be a top idea as far as I am concerned.

Many crimes such as rape and murder could be solved within hours, so what is his problem as long as the information on these cards is checked and verified prior to any conviction?

Surely Coun Reynolds can appreciate "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few".

As far as the state tightening its grip on our hard-won liberties is concerned, this doesn't seem to bother him when the State in the form of the Council increases council tax therefore tightening its grip on my hard-earned money, for a service which I feel is second-rate.

Noel Waterhouse, Haworth Road, Bradford

SIR - It is outrageous that the Government should shove its nose into a decision about the structure of Bradford Council. At a recent Council meeting, on a free vote, all but a couple of our 90 councillors voted for the present system to continue.

The pro-mayor campaigners, led by an ex-Labour councillor who recently lost his own seat, know that Labour lost control of the Council in 2000 and will not regain control in the near future. Having their own elected mayor is the only way they see of Labour regaining some control of the Council.

As for the survey that took place, the key factor is not the number who "wanted some form of elected mayor" (T&A, October 11), but the proportion (82 per cent) who voted for the continuance of a Cabinet of Councillors. Of these, 58 per cent preferred a Cabinet chaired by one of the elected councillors (present system) and 42 per cent wanted it headed by an elected mayor.

To add the votes of those who wanted a mayor and cabinet to the votes of those who wanted a mayor and manager - two completely different systems - is an obscene distortion of the true views of the vast majority of respondents.

Councillor David Ward (Idle Ward Lib Dem), Clare Road, Bolton Villas, Wrose.

SIR - In response to Dr Tom's article about chronic fatigue syndrome, I would like to point out that it is not the same as ME.

Some of the symptoms eg excessive fatigue, are similar, but in ME you can also have extremely painful muscles all over the body making it almost impossible at times to do any exercises.

Even getting up from a chair, or getting dressed and undressed, can at times be very, very painful as I know only too well.

These bad spells are often said to come after a dose of flu or some similar ailment. Irritable bowel syndrome can also be a sign of ME.

The only way really to know what ME feels like is to have a dose. Nobody appears to have discovered the cause, or any treatment. Some get better, some don't.

I only started a few years ago, fight it as well as I can, but now feel pain which I didn't have at the start.

Unfortunately I am allergic to drugs for muscle pain.

Mrs M Cook, Hall Bank Drive, Bingley.