Letters to the Editor

A little further along the route about six boys got on and apparently all paid their fare.

We realised they hadn't when the driver went up the stairs and said: "When each boy has paid his correct fare, we will continue on the journey." He then sat behind the wheel and patiently waited.

After a short while one boy came down and paid his fare and then a second sheepish-looking boy came down and paid his fare.

We then continued on the journey without any bad temper or raised voices from anyone.

Congratulations, Mr Driver.

Mrs J M Freeman, Moorside Gardens, Bradford 2.

SIR - For a day worker or shopper, the new bus services and routes may not be too bad. But shift workers like myself are just about left high and dry.

The bus times now turn an eight-hour shift into a 10-hour shift.

After 6.32pm the 607 buses from Holme Wood to Thornton only run hourly. That is no good to people trying to get to work on, say, the night shift, or the morning shift.

If it is raining, people like myself who live the top end of Holme Wood have to get wet walking through the estate to catch the 617/18.

First Bradford is not now a public service, but private enterprise.

We were told by a top First Bradford official that they paid £3 million to consultants from London to put this sham together. Well let them accompany me trying to get to and from work without being late, then tell me we are better off.

Like Allerton, Lower Grange, Thorpe Edge and others, the Holme Wood service early and late is total rubbish.

Terry Britton, Leamside Walk, Holme Wood, Bradford.

SIR - Now we have the new bus service, is it possible to relocate shelters in Wibsey?

We have a shelter in Fair Road near the Co-op. This was used for passengers going to the city. Now the only bus serving it is Green Line on its last stages to Buttershaw.

On the return journey towards the city, passengers are left opposite the shelter with no cover against the elements looking at an almost unused shelter across the road.

Another shelter in question is sited between Fair Road and Holdroyd Hill. Again, passengers have to wait at the opposite side of the road.

Passengers now have to queue at the top of Smith Avenue as the new service comes up from Mayo Avenue via Smith Avenue, again exposed to the elements.

It appears to be a case of two shelters now not really convenient to serve passengers.

Elderly people were very grateful for this cover.

R Agar, Folly Hall Close, Wibsey.

SIR - Re the new bus services. I live at the bottom of St Paul's Avenue, and have done so since the house was built 39 years ago. I have lived in this area all my life and done all my shopping in Wibsey village Co-op and use St Enoch's Post Office for pension. I regard the 613 bus as a real blessing.

No longer will I have to carry heavy bags of shopping from Wibsey village down St Paul's Avenue. While I feel sorry for the people who no longer have a direct bus service to Morrisons, I for one say about time!

Mrs L Talbot, St Paul's Avenue, Odsal.

SIR - I must take issue with Peter Wilson ("It's time to change the record", Letters, August 14). It is quite obvious that he doesn't read all my letters as the subject matter changes as often as he is bored out of his pants.

To analyse Mr Wilson's letter brings to light many problems. He has a hero-worship syndrome regarding Tony Blair and some football team or other, and an interest in Charlie Dimmock. But the best one is his wish to know about the love-life of a coconut. Need I say more!

T Williams-Berry, Bredon Avenue, Wrose, Shipley.

SIR - A letter from one of your readers on August 7 criticised Mike Priestley for comments he had made on "great leader President Blair". The conclusion of the letter referred to the "brown-envelope" morality of the previous administration.

Does the fact that the current sleaze comes in transparent envelopes make Blair and his cronies more moral? Of course not.

The brown envelopes did not cost the ordinary voter one penny. The Blairs' holiday is costing us at least £40,000 and the PM and his "first lady" take home between them well over a quarter of a million pounds annually, plus perks!

Gordon Brown and his new wife get offered a jet by Richard Branson to avoid their being late.

Blair tries to engineer things: the Lord Mayor of London, the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament. This is tantamount to sleaze and in my opinion is immoral.

I think your correspondent, like all good lemmings, would follow their glorious moral leader blindly over the cliff edge.

Blair a socialist? Balderdash!

P E Bird, Nab Wood Terrace, Shipley.

SIR - My granddaughter has just returned from a two-week scouts jamboree in Russia. She had a great time and says the Russian people were really nice, particularly to the English scouts. Thank God somebody loves us. Jack Straw, please note.

She noticed that very many Russians were very keen to show they were Christian and was told that under Communism Christianity was banned, "but we were never really confident about Communism, so we kept our religion - just in case".

Eric Firth, Wellington Street, Wilsden

SIR - Your editorial of August 11 and the previous decision of the Bradford Area Planning Panel to reject the application by St James Securities to build public houses on Centenary Square are to be applauded.

The proposals were deemed inappropriate for the location before and the same must apply now.

As a city, Bradford appears to have lost its way. It flounders in a sea of self-doubt and is consequently vulnerable to mediocre development proposals - any development at any price appears to be the prevailing mood.

Perhaps we could start to reverse this situation if, as a city, we said no to the mediocre and the second rate as your editorial suggests.

Your readers often criticise the Council but on this occasion I would ask them to back the decision of the Planning Panel in its rejection of the proposal for the Provincial House site.

Bradford needs and deserves better but we will only get that if we demand it. Let us now demand.

Paul King, Upper Piccadilly, Bradford 1.