SIR - It was with total horror that I read of the decision of President Bush to withdraw the United States from the Kyoto Treaty, and its attempt to halt global warming.

I suppose, however, that we should have expected nothing less. Bush is an oil man, and the oil companies helped to put him where he is. Now it is payback time.

The United States, with just four per cent of the world's population, already produces 26 per cent of the world's CO2 emissions. For the world's biggest polluter to shrug its shoulders and ignore climate change is utterly irresponsible.

For the oil companies to use their immense lobbying power to bring that about is completely unacceptable.

So, if Bush will only listen to big business, we must make big business listen to us. Green parties throughout Europe are calling for a mass boycott of the big American oil companies - Esso, Texaco and Chevron - and I appeal to your readers to support this and buy their fuel elsewhere.

Climate change is the biggest environmental and economic challenge facing our planet, and while Kyoto falls far short of what is needed to turn things around, it is, at least, a step in the right direction.

Martin Love (prospective parliamentary candidate, Shipley Green Party), Farfield Road, Shipley.

SIR - Bradford Council have sent out letters to everyone asking for their opinions on proposals for differing forms of management of the authority, including an elected mayor, and initally asked for a response by the April 9 - less than seven days after people received the letter (now amended until the end of the month).

There are many questions which people may wish to ask about the information provided, but they would have had no time to do so. What about those people who may have wanted to respond, but were on holiday?

Was this a deliberate ploy by the Council to discourage responses, and therefore do what they want to do, citing lack of a public response as a reason for their actions?

If the Council expect the inhabitants of the area to respond to their missives in seven days, why cannot the Council do this with, for example, housing benefit applications, planning applications, land searches, etc?

Keith Pickles, Delph Drive, Clayton.

SIR - Re the new Council for the New Millennium. The Models 1, 2 & 3 are centralising power in one person or small cabinet.

It would make most of our councillors virtually obsolete, destroy the voluntary aspect of local government, make it unaccountable and could add considerably to the cost of local government.

I consider it is essential that we vote against all these three models, although this is not allowed for in the Government proposals.

We should not destroy our democratic local government, which has stood the test of time, for the sake of change. There should be more, not less, local input.

Let us not forget the old adage, that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

R J de Rome, Narrow Lane, Harden.

SIR - I do not see why the foot-and-mouth situation should cause the local elections to be postponed until June.

The municipal year is from May to May, and should stay that way.

The general election should be postponed until October not because of foot and mouth, but because having both elections on the same date confuses the issues.

Also the weather in October would not be too bad. And a lot of people would be back from holiday.

G B Lambert, Moorcroft Drive, Bradford 4.

SIR - In your Comment (T&A, March 27), I think you may have misunderstood the nature of Church of England schools.

It is precisely these schools, which currently account for about a quarter of all school places in Bradford, that are among the most ethnically and religiously mixed, and which have the greatest possibility of standing out against the current worrying trend towards ethnic separation in the secular schools.

Just two examples are Church of England schools such as St Barnabas, Heaton, and St Phillip's, Girlington, where, of course, the pupils overwhelmingly reflect the ethnic and religious composition of the local Asian communities.

At Immanuel Community College, where only 50 per cent of places are for children with a Christian faith, and which is located in a predominantly white area, the governors have suggested that following the example of other Church of England and Roman Catholic schools, there should be a proportion of places set aside specifically for Muslim and other-faith pupils.

This would also assist in ensuring a wider ethnic mix as well.

I believe that our faith-based schools can make a real contribution towards a school population that is thoroughly mixed and respectful of each other.

Guy Wilkinson, Archdeacon of Bradford, Park Cliffe Road, Undercliffe.