SIR - Regarding the dilemma over whether John Street Market should remain open or close for the duration of the refurbishment, may I suggest that an open market is set up in and around Centenary Square to accommodate John Street and Rawson Market traders.

This would ensure that people don't get out of the routine of shopping at the markets and after the refit people would follow the market back to its home.

Some Rawson butchers could move into the fish market and other butchers, delicatessen stalls etc could have stalls in a portable building or a covered marquee and use the refrigeration cabinets from the old markets.

Compensation could go to the shopkeepers along John Street, then, when the new John Street Market opens, trade should get back to normal.

The cost of market stalls would be just a fraction of the £3 million to be spent on the refurbishment, as would be the compensation.

I suggest that the Council along with traders involved consider this as a serious option.

Michael Bannerman, Thornton Road, Girlington.

SIR - Last year I appealed for help from your readers (I asked for the music to Ilkley Moor with the words for While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks). Your readers were superb and the choir, which I am in, was able to perform it at our concerts over the Christmas period and raise money for several charities. To those who wrote to me then, thank you.

At our concerts I always "do" a monologue. They include The Lion and Albert, Yorkshire Pudding, etc. On July 21 I shall be reading all of them at a concert, where I will be the only performer. All monies raised will go to Cancer Research. I could do with a few more to balance out the evening, so once again I am appealing to your readers.

If you have a monologue that you could send me a copy of, or if you know of any book I could borrow or buy, or if you have one I could borrow, you would be helping me to raise money for such a worthy cause.

Thank you.

Irene Dodd, (nee Mitchell, who used to live in Cullingworth) 15, Ashmore Avenue, Wednesfield, Wolverhampton WV11 2LT.

SIR - In response to your editorial on the future of education in Bradford, and the new partnership needed to drive this forward. It is important that this has the full active support of all those involved. It has full all-party support, something that was positively welcomed by the Schools Minister, Estelle Morris.

The School Improvement Board will, I hope, move rapidly into becoming the body that channels the commitment and energy to moving this forward.

Much has been rightly made of the errors of the past. I am confident that the ideas aired some time ago about a new partnership for delivering school support can now happen.

I am committed to this, and assure you that this overrides any other issues or priorities my Group has.

Councillor Ralph Berry (Executive Member, Labour), City Hall, Bradford.

SIR - I refer to the recent decision to cut the 648 Bradford to Otley service and wish to add my objection to others who have written on this subject.

I am unable to take any practical alternatives and working as I do at Wharfedale General Hospital, an early start is necessary. What is the point of telling people to stop using their cars and transfer to public transport?

Mrs Geraldine Storey, Tannery Court, Apperley Bridge.

SIR - So they are at it once again - 'they' being the people behind their desks reorganising bus services and inconveniencing prospective passengers.

Why don't they leave the services alone? We don't need either the 641 or 671 altering. The Pullan Avenue service is needed. Without it some people are never going to get anywhere. As it is, buses are only hourly and in the afternoon there is a two-hourly gap.

Dorothy Rhodes, Rowanberry Close, Eccleshill, Bradford.

SIR - I was interested to read the report "Home for children put on market" (T&A, June 30).

Burnside House, Skipton, during the 1920s and 30s, was a Christian Endeavour Holiday Home, and I spent many holidays there.

What a wonderful place it was for young people (and older). Now in my 91st year, I still recall in detail ho much fun I had there.

I sincerely hope when it is sold it will still be used for children and young people.

Mrs Mary Lee, Heights Lane, Bradford 9.

Move the Mela

SIR - Once again the city of Bradford has had to endure mindless yobs spoiling the pleasure of thousands of other people at the Mela festival held in Peel Park.

Once again, the West Yorkshire Police Force have had to don riot gear, and call upon mounted police personnel to deal with youths who have shown time and time again in Bradford, over recent years, a scant disregard for law and order.

As a resident living adjacent to Peel Park, I think that it is about high time that the Mela was transferred to another venue.

The so-called "spectacle" has a huge down side, such as the obscene amounts of litter and filth left in the park. Visitors treat it as one huge dustbin and urinate in people's gardens. Then there are the problems caused by the closing of certain streets and roads to traffic, and finally, the huge cost of financing the police presence.

Donald Firth, Harrogate Street, Undercliffe.