Letters to the Editor

SIR - Having been a policeman for 20 years, now stationed at Wakefield, I volunteered to play a part in PC Sharon Beshenivsky's funeral.

After the cortege had passed, one of your reporters, a young lady, told me she wasn't working but had simply come to pay her respects. She said we had done a good job and it had been a good send-off and we should be proud.

Her kind words struck a chord. I couldn't describe her, or thank her, as my eyes were filling up at this point, because after all, cops don't cry do they?

As a traffic family liaison officer in the motorway unit, I often attend road deaths and see things most of us would choose not to. When the 'knock on the door' comes it's usually me with the news nobody wants to hear.

Yet the funeral was very difficult for me to deal with. I never met Sharon but my colleagues and I felt we knew her. It was a difficult day for everyone, but helped enormously by the kind words and support from the people of Bradford.

I cannot tell you how much the young lady's words meant to me.

PC Don Crossley, West Yorkshire Police, Wakefield

Priority for beck

SIR - Well said Stanley King! (T&A, January 17). At last we have a councillor who is prepared to break the code of silence.

It is no secret I am in favour of retaining the present magistrates' Court - a "star" civic building in a civic precinct. I also suggested that the now defunct Tyrls police station be used by the probation service.

I hear on the grapevine they are holding out for a new building. Perhaps this could become the "star" building located at Exchange Court, although it would be nice to learn of other suggestions put forward by 'interested developers.'

I notice that the proposed lake has now been upgraded to a wooded park with a water feature. A small victory for common sense.

If Bradford Beck is to flow 'at level' along lower Thornton Road, I suggest the top priority is to make absolutely sure it is unpolluted.

The level can be raised by one or more weirs further upstream. It can then be siphoned under Princes Way to re-emerge in Norfolk Gardens as the water feature.

I would suggest that Broadway would be a better route to follow as it is wider than Market Street and heading in the right direction to tie-in with the proposed canal.

However, this route will take it through the Broadway shopping precinct, so an urgent decision is required.

Eddie Bennett, Duchy Drive, Heaton

A nappy ending?

SIR - I do hope that the practice of manufacturers paying to get rid of their products catches on. Chewing gum (T&A, January 16) is a great example and the next in line should be disposable nappies.

It costs about 3p a nappy to landfill them at the moment, more than £1 a week for a baby, and with about 11,000 little Bradfordians using them, the annual cost to the Council is more than £600,000.

Such a donation from the manufacturers could well be used to improve the kerbside recycling scheme.

Keith Thomson, Heights Lane, Bradford

Warming to change

SIR - Keith Thomson's letters are all very interesting but maybe its time to look at an alternative view.

There are experts from a whole range of fields, including agriculture and medicine, who think the climate changes could actually be a good thing. In their view a hotter planet can bring with it benefits and humans will adapt perfectly well.

Claims that sea levels will rise by two metres have reduced, as a result of recent research, to a rise of ten to 20 centimetres. Levels around the Maldives are actually to go down slightly.

Claims that global warming will have dire consequences for agriculture are proving to be wrong because we are adapting to change. Farmers, seeing their current crops are not coping with increased temperatures, are beginning to grow crops suitable to the new climate.

Carbon dioxide is producing benefits - global yields of wheat and rice are expected to rise by 18 per cent, and clover, a key foodstuff for grazing animals, look set to rise by 36 per cent.

Economic studies are showing it will be far more expensive to cut greenhouse gases than the cost of adapting to a warmer planet.

John Stead, Rooley Avenue, Bradford

And, Mr Brown?

SIR - It was recently reported that the European Commission had called Gordon Brown to account regarding the size of his borrowing on our behalf.

It was also reported that Gordon Brown had urged the Labour Party to wrap itself in the Union Jack.

I haven't seen it reported that Gordon Brown told the European Commission to mind its own business.

T Hill, Harbour Crescent, Bradford

Urge your MPs

SIR - On behalf of The Stroke Association, I'm writing to ask your readers if they will urge their MPs to sign Early Day Motion 1186 'National Audit Office Report on Treating Strokes'.

An EDM is a motion tabled in the House of Commons to bring attention to a particular subject.

This EDM calls for the Government to improve services and care available to stroke patients.

Stroke is the third largest killer and the leading single cause of adult disability in the UK, costing the UK £7 billion a year. Yet strokes are being misdiagnosed and ignored.

A severe lack of resources in this area is putting lives at risk. Health professionals struggle to treat patients properly and stroke survivors are unable to get the life changing rehabilitation they need.

Moreover, around 40 per cent of strokes could be prevented.

Through personal experience I know what a devastating effect a stroke can have on a person's life.

Please help the 130,000 people who have a stroke each year and the 300,000 who are living with a disability as a result of a stroke by asking your MP to sign EDM 1186.

Honor Blackman, The Stroke Association, City Road, London

Pubs' death knell

SIR - As a former smoker, and having worked in pubs and clubs over the past 30 years, I would have to agree with the comments of Craig Ambler, (T&A, January 17), a total ban on smoking would result in the closure of more pubs and clubs, with the loss of thousands of jobs in the licensed trade and related industry.

Most smokers are good drinkers, and good drinkers are the 'bread and butter' of the licensed trade!

While the anti-smoking brigade may venture out twice a week instead of once for their two pints of lager and a packet of crisps in a smoke-free, empty environment, they are kidding themselves if they think they can keep open their favourite pubs or club.

It's time they got real and did their sums, a total smoking ban would be commercial suicide!

Mrs Christine Howker, Peel Park Terrace, Undercliffe

Lines offensive

SIR - I was deeply offended by the lines the actor and actress had to say on Coronation Street last week, probably because I worked for a government body for some years where PC was constantly rammed down my throat.

The offending line "living like white trash" in my opinion is a racist comment as I am a white person.

Whoever wrote these lines should be reprimanded.

Where I worked you couldn't even use the expression 'I am starving hungry' because it was considered to be not PC.

So if we are all to be politically correct, TV should be setting an example to today's up-and-coming multicultural society.

Mrs S Binns, Bilsdale Grange, Bradford