SIR – Cuts can be made in most firms and organisations, but Airedale Hospital is not one of them.

Over the past four years I have had excellent treatment there including two nights’ stay on two separate occasions. And in the last six weeks, my wife has received first-class treatment as an out-patient requiring several visits.

I have always found the staff – medical and non-medical – to be excellent, including the voluntary guides who assist in directing people to the appropriate departments through the maze of corridors.

I’m sure everyone will agree that hospitals, police and our armed forces are important and none should be cut back.

The need for police is clearly evident, with the increase in serious crimes, including the amount of dangerous drugs, murders and illegal cars.

In the 1940s and 1950s, there seemed to be only one murder per year. When I was a very young boy, I remember a lady shopkeeper in Garnett Street being murdered, and then about 50 years ago the landlady at the Nags Head, Clayton Heights, being murdered. Nowadays, there are lots of murders and stabbings, so we do not want a reduction in police numbers.

And the Libya conflict has shown the need for the RAF and Royal Navy.

Let cuts be made but, please, not in these necessary services.

Peter A Rushforth, Sutton Drive, Cullingworth