Letters to the Editor

What we have is a local trader - Mr Darren Todd - who has established a new business in a long-empty shop.

Instead of his initiative being welcomed Mr Todd has been hit by a demand for £5,000 to buy out an archaic covenant imposed in the 1920s by the high-minded worthies of the borough to prevent the depraved working classes from having easier access to alcohol.

Instead of seeking to make a short-term gain from such outdated notions of morality, I would have thought it more appropriate for the Council to assist in anyway it can in the development of local enterprises which are the only hope for the future of Bingley.

Could not Councillor Margaret Eato , recently-elected leader of our new Conservative/Lib-Dem administration, in her capacity as local representative of the people and that of head of the executive, give instructions that the finance directorate thinks again?

Brian Holmans, Langley Road, Bingley.

SIR - How very sad that the Better Bingley Campaign and some local councillors are attacking the Bingley Town Centre Partnership, seeing it as unelected and secretive and so a source of real or imagined mischief.

Such a stance is untimely and shows little regard for the good sense and public spiritedness of the people who represent the various bodies which make up the Partnership.

The Partnership was set up in response to an oft-repeated concern that the town's institutions, organisations and major employers went about their business without consulting each other.

The Partnership was a well-intentioned and exceedingly effective response to that concern. It has no budget and no power as such but it certainly has influence.

The decision on 'The Road' is the most obvious example. It enables its constituents to share fears, facts - yes, and confidences - in a safe environment, for the good of the town.

There is a very real risk that the Bingley Town Centre Partnership will at best be less effective or, at worst dissolve amid the clamour for an accountability which already exists. Now is hardly the time for these distractions to impede the Partnership's work.

Mark Rand, Westwood Crescent, Bingley.

SIR - I refer to the letter "Decision that only causes racism", by Duncan Higgins (June 22).

I am tired of this kind of ethno/eurocentric ignorance spouted by so many of your readers. Someone who steals a packet of crisps from a shop is still a criminal, along with a murderer. They are both crimes. Similarly, racism in the smallest form is still racism. No form of it should be tolerated.

Frankly, I prefer the racists who have the conviction to show me what they think because then there is no questioning where we stand. I cannot stand those who say they are not racist but use even the tiniest racial slur. It is ignorant to say that this is political correctness; it is simply human courtesy.

With the present problems in the police force, problems which the majority of us in the non-white communities were already aware of, it is commendable that such swift and decisive action is being taken against the slightest hint of racism.

Finally, just imagine hearing one of Mr Higgins's "odd" little (non) racist names once a week for 52 weeks every year for the past 20 years. One tends to get slightly sensitive after a while. Try a little empathy.

Philip G. Charles, Willow Park Drive, Shelf, Halifax.

SIR - So Yorkshire Water can't make a profit from their monopoly, given the Government's regulations regarding prices. I have a couple of suggestions.

1 Perhaps they could reduce some of their "fat cat" salaries, dividends and bonuses.

2 Maybe there are further assets they could sell off. Surely they haven't stripped them all.

Alternatively, if what they say is true, in that their liabilities exceed their income and their company is in debt, why not admit their incompetence and declare their company bankrupt?

They surely really do not expect their long-suffering customers to pay good money to buy a bankrupt company, stripped of any surplus assets from a bunch of incompetents?

Trevor Willis, Nab Wood Gardens, Shipley.

SIR - I would like to point out the following to J Stephenson (Letters, June 22).

There used to be honourable, principled politicians in Labour (ie Benn, Bevan, Scargill) worthier than this bunch.

The "900,000 jobs created by the New Deal" are very menial with appalling pay. If offers of jobs are refused, benefits are stopped for a year.

Can a party with so many who call themselves socialists really do this, and become a slave to the World American Order of capitalism?

Disability benefit cuts and wars in Iraq and Kosovo are what I expect from the party of Powell and Thatcher. Blair even invited Heseltine in, but he declined.

Blair's other tool of the minimum wage is folly. The Low Pay Commission states that payment below the rate is commonplace in Britain. A Red Flag song is too good for this shower of New Tories.

All the big parties are shameless supporters of capitalism, a doctrine turning people into mere customers. The workers should take their power back.

Voting for a party which would repeal anti-union laws is the solution.

C Spurgin, Dorset Street, Skipton.

SIR - Re the proposed changes to bus routes, especially the 670 which is to be re-routed up Thorpe Edge, instead of going up to Morrisons which is the bus I need to get to work from Greengates at 6.20am.

The only other alternative at the moment is the 609 getting off at the top of The Bank and walking on to Five Lane Ends.

So what alternative is First Bus going to provide for me to get to work without having to walk to get a bus at that time of the morning?

Mrs S Coulter, Ryton Dale, Greengates.

SIR - While I have every sympathy with Mrs O'Brien on the death of her husband, (being a widow of 30 years myself). I feel I must speak on behalf of the doctors in question (T&A, June 23).

For more than 44 years I have been a patient at the practice in Hanover Square, and during that time have been very well looked after with no cause for complaint.

I feel that Mrs O'Brien should lay the blame where it really belongs i.e. at the door of a Government that can spend money on "Domes" etc and every Tom, Dick and Harry that comes into this country while spending the minimum on a very over-stretched health service.

It is not doctors and nurses who are to blame for the state of things in this country but politicians who promise the earth and find out when in power that the cake isn't big enough for all their foolish schemes.

Mrs Annie Shackleton, Eden Close, Wyke.