Letters to the Editor

The triangle mentioned consisted of part of Beech Grove, where I lived, Pollard Lane and Fernbank Road.

All our back gardens faced on to this triangle which, for some reason or other, was known as The Square.

During the day clothes lines were put up, but in summer evenings and weekends it was our playground for French cricket, rounders, etc. About ten friends used to gather there.

Plot Night saw a bonfire with parents providing parkin, toffees, roast potatoes etc. They knew we were safe there.

There was never any rubbish strewn around except, perhaps, the ashes of our bonfires. It was also within a very short distance of Westfield Crescent which has been in the news lately.

In those far-off days this area was looked upon as an extremely pleasant neighbourhood in which to live.

I am not likely to see it again, so I am content to just remember the very happy childhood I spent there, attending Hanson Infants, Juniors and Secondary Schools and St Augustine's Church where I was married.

Mrs M Cook, Hall Bank Drive, Bingley.

SIR - Tonight (August 10) I left work in the city centre to visit my parents in Bierley, which is a trip I could walk in about 30 minutes from my office. However, I decided to catch the bus and left the building just after 5.55pm, making my way to Nelson Street outside the Interchange.

At about 7.10pm, I arrived at my parents' house. What could have taken me half an hour to do myself, our public transport system took around an hour and a quarter.

From arriving just after 6pm at Nelson Street, it wasn't until 6.45pm that the bus finally decided to make an appearance. No apology or explanation was offered by the driver for the two scheduled "Yellow Line" buses that had mysteriously failed to materialise.

While this one episode is outrageous and unacceptable, it is so typical of how First Bradford now operates. First Bradford is abusing its local monopoly position and providing us with a third-rate service.

Steps should be taken to revoke the company's licence and its routes handed over to others.

John Crewdson, Sandy Lane, Bradford 15.

SIR - Could I suggest the 633 bus came up Wakefield Road instead of the 620 and return this to its previous route, via New Hey Road and Bowling Hall Road and into Bierley via Currer Avenue, Heathall Avenue and Burnham Avenue?

The residents at the bottom of Burnham Avenue are nearly all pensioners and to make a visit to the doctor (Rooley Lane) by bus is almost impossible.

I had occasion to accompany my husband last Thursday and because of the bus service arrived at the surgery at 3.50 for a 3.45 appointment.

Any other visit will have to be by taxi and much more costly as my husband being 83 found it difficult and horrible walking through the subway.

Mrs J Ward, Burnham Avenue, Bierley.

SIR - David Senior (T&A, August 9) omits the one thing that all Tory politicians would like us to forget: The fact that they were the Government for 18 years until 1997.

After 18 years of Tory rule nothing was done for the NHS, education, pensioners, the unemployed and, with a Tory MP locally, nothing was done to relieve traffic congestion in Bingley.

Only by having a Labour Government has the NHS and education received the investment needed to reverse Tory cuts, pensioners now have a minimum income guarantee and winter fuel allowance, unemployment has fallen and those in work, nearly one million more jobs created since 1997, have the protection of a minimum wage and Bingley, with a local Labour MP, will soon have the Relief Road.

The Conservative Party, in opposition, have opposed all these measures.

David Senior, who was parachuted into the area by Conservative Central Office for the General Election despite local Tory opposition, should have checked out local history and he would have found out that a Tory Government, and the previous Tory MP, neglected local people.

Tony Rawlinson, Birklands Road, Shipley.

SIR - I have been fully expecting some response in your columns to the decision by the new Asda supermarket at Dudley Hill to sell meat from animals slaughtered by the halal ritual.

This method of slaughter is extremely cruel and I can never understand why it should be allowed in this country.

Sorry Asda, but because of the halal meat issue, I will certainly not be visiting your store again.

Duncan Higgins, Oakland, Bradford 10.

SIR - During the reconstruction of the A629 at Denholme, it has become evident that we need an international language to serve the Europeans, if we are to become more integrated in our business and travel.

While the road has been blocked, two huge wagons tried to get through on the way to Keighley. In spite of the fact that the drivers had been on the same route previously, the diversions were causing some difficulty.

There was no one there who could speak to the drivers in their own language and re-direct them. It is a sad affair when we are not able to welcome guests to this country in their own language when we hear such glowing reports of how every Italian speaks English.

There is a remedy however, by using Esperanto, the international language created for this purpose, over 100 years ago, by a Polish doctor.

So, why do we not accept the idea of learning our own national language first, then following it by learning this international language?

F L Holden, Longlands Avenue, Denholme.

SIR - I see that the recent proposals for the replacement of Provincial House in Centenary Square have been resurrected.

Is this proposal really the "spiritual expression" of a "European City of Culture" in its principal square?

Is this simply not an inferior scheme for an inferior city, and has Bradford become that city?

Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire.

SIR - I am keen to get in touch with anyone who is descended from Isaac and Frances Denison, married in 1743, in Leeds, and then living in North Rigton. I am particularly interested in finding out about Isaac's parents and place of birth.

Eileen Gilgannon, Russett House, Stag Hill, Yorkley, Lydney, Glos G115 4TD.