SIR - I realise that First Bus Bradford have come in for an enormous amount of criticism recently and unfortunately it is usually the people who are unhappy with a service who get the most publicity.

I would, however, like your readers to be aware of our experience of First Bus.

I am assistant youth leader for Bradford Deaf Youth Club and we had promised to take our group to Alton Towers during the school holidays. The trip looked in jeopardy because of the cost of transport to get the group there and back.

We contacted First Bus and explained the situation to see if we could perhaps negotiate a discount. They were brilliant and provided a double-decker bus free of charge.

The whole group had a great day out and I would especially like to thank the driver Tony Smith who was wonderful with all the youngsters and for whom nothing was too much trouble.

A big "THANK YOU", First Bus, from all at Bradford Deaf Youth Club.

Christine Harvey (Assistant Youth Leader, Bradford Deaf Youth Club), Claremont Grove, Wrose.

SIR - I read with interest the note at the end of the report covering the activities of the Skyrac Athletics Club.

When I came to Menston in the early 1960s, we did not have an athletics club in the area. As a founder member of Hull Spartan Athletics Club, I was asked to support the formation of the club and became chairman and coach.

I put the name "Skyrac" forward having read its mention in a booklet, "The Story of Menston", prepared as part of the Menston village celebration of the Coronation of our Queen.

It said: "The Angles were splendid law-makers and the government was good. They divided the large county of Yorkshire into thridings or third parts, and divided again into wapentakes, each of these had its own form of local government. A wapentake consisted of ten tithings and a tithing consisted of ten families.

"Now we read of the township of Mensington in the Wapentake of Skyrac. When the tithing men attended the Skyrac Wapentake council at the Shire Oak, an interesting ceremony took place. Each man had to touch weapons with the sheriff in a token of submission. This was called 'Tig' and we still have the word in the children's game of Tiggy Tiggy Touch Wood."

So that is where the title Skyrac (please, no 'K') came from.

R H Martin, president (retired) Skyrac AC, Brooklands Avenue, Menston.

SIR - As chairman of Shipley Conservatives, I must refute Tony Rawlinson's bizarre allegation (T&A, August 21) that David Senior, our Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, was 'parachuted into the area by Conservative Central Office despite local Tory opposition'!

David was the overwhelming choice of local members who put the 75 applicants for the nomination through a four-stage selection process.

At the final event, open to every member, he defeated two rivals, including a former MP, by a substantial majority and he now has 100 per cent support from our members.

David, who recently moved from Menston to Baildon, works locally, is a Governor of Salts Grammar and Cottingley Primary, and is our Yorkshire Vice President responsible for Conservative Clubs.

Personal attacks by Labour activists invariably backfire and Mr Rawlinson would be well advised to stick to the issues which are of real concern to local people.

Bryan Hobson, chairman, Shipley Constituency Conservative Association, Otley Road, Shipley.

SIR - Having just spent the best part of five weeks in St Luke's Hospital on C3 ward, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sister Leslie Matthews and all her staff nurses, for all their care and attention.

Nothing was too much trouble for them.

Keep up the good work. Where would we be without you all.

P Tordoff, Farringdon Grove, Bradford 6.

SIR - On August 22 the T&A featured a report headlined "Butchers broke food safety laws". This made reference to the accused and the name under which they traded in Keighley market as "Sutcliffe's butchers".

C E Sutcliffe and Sons, butchers, have traded in Keighley and Skipton market with an excellent reputation since 1954 until the end of 1996, when the partnership dissolved.

The business was divided between myself Mr P E Sutcliffe, taking over the Skipton establishment, and my brother Mr R J Sutcliffe, who became responsible for the Keighley market shop.

My brother went on to sell his share of the business to the offending butchers, who despite an agreement to cease trading under the Sutcliffe family name, continued to do so.

Despite efforts to inform our valued customers of this false name trading and the fact that the two establishments are no longer connected, some confusion still remains.

Therefore in response to this report I would like to reassure customers that the well-established long-running butcher's named Sutcliffe's is still in operation under the management of Mr P E Sutcliffe, at 5 Otley Street, Skipton and at no other premises - despite misleading and false trading names displayed by the offending butchers and their establishment.

P E Sutcliffe, Wheathead Crescent, Exley Head, Keighley.

SIR - Between August 17 and 18 you printed four letters from the usual suspects containing a long list of trivial and ill-informed complaints about Tony Blair and his government.

They told us that the NHS is a joke, the police are incompetent, the unemployment statistics have been fiddled and the recent travel arrangements of Messrs Blair, Brown and Prescott are "tantamount" to sleaze.

Such pathetic rubbish can best be answered by a few examples taken from the real world:

l You publish up to ten letters a week from former patients who have nothing but praise for their treatment in local hospitals;

l A recent newsletter from my Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator tells me that in the Keighley police division all categories of crime have been reduced in the last 12 months - especially domestic burglary which is down by 35 per cent;

l It is true that the Tories regularly "adjusted" the claimant count to keep the numbers down, but since 1997 a million jobs have been created and more people are now in paid employment than ever before;

l A private plane for security reasons, a replacement to avoid embarrassing the operator (Virgin) and the odd trip along Bournemouth sea front in a Jag is hardly sleaze in the same league as Archer, Aitken and Hamilton.

Brian Holmans, Langley Road, Bingley.