Letters to the Editor

SIR - The letter we received informing us escorts could no longer travel in ambulances was not from the ambulance service but from the Director, Clinical and Scientific Support Service Group.

The letter states: "This will leave more seats available for patients who genuinely need transport, the need of patients must take priority.

Of all the times I have escorted my husband more often than not we have been the only passengers - plenty of empty seats.

After a severe stroke my husband is disabled and unable to talk and cannot be left unattended.

I have seen very old patients from nursing homes who cannot be expected to be unattended by their carers.

These are the patients whose needs should take priority.

A visit to the warfarin clinic once every six weeks is the only after-care we received. No other social services. Now my husband has the stress of having to struggle in and out of taxis.

The ambulance staff I have spoken to are most apologetic, insisting it is nothing to do with them.

No, it's a clinical and scientific decision.

E Yeadon, Grange Grove, Bradford.

Mystery decision

SIR - Regarding the ban on escorts going on the ambulances with patients to hospital (T&A, January 26).

This decision was not published, and it was only when an ambulanceman showed my wife a letter and said she could not go with her daughter that we became aware of it. No blame on the driver, he was only doing as he was told.

It appears to me that more compassion is shown to TVs and furniture on delivery.

When was this decision made and by whom and why had the ambulance service to inform patients? That should have been done by the hospital.

I see that from the Telegraph & Argus that an unnamed trust spokesman has decided it's not to save money, and the needs of our patients take priority.

Which patients and how on earth does this mean shorter waiting times will be achieved?

Daniel Mangham, Briarwood Avenue, Wibsey.

A right old mess

SIR - I've no truck with Phillip Davies and the Conservative Party, but if he is trying to address the dangerous excesses of political correctness more power to his elbow.

For Labour councillor Vanda Greenwood to call his actions ridiculous speaks volumes about herself and her party. If she agrees with a political correctness that is sweeping the country and stifling any sort of meaningful debate, particularly on race, she should let her constituents know.

We can all joke about the merchants of PC and the boycotting of words like blackboard and manhole, but there are other serious matters that damage the very fabric of our society.

Promotion and recruitment at some workplaces are based on quotas aligned to positive discrimination of certain cultures. At my place of work they have stopped the practice of rewarding 100 per cent annual timekeeping with a bottle of wine, because it discriminates against people who are more prone to be poorly than others and those who go on religious pilgrimages!

Britain's in a right old mess and political correctness allied to Europe's Human Rights Charters only please the criminals and bleeding heart liberals.

T Williams, Park Road, Bingley.

You're all right Jack

SIR - Once again it's folk who don't live on Netherlands who think they are the authority and try to dictate what should happen on other people's doorstep (T&A, January 24).

Firstly Mr Stead, why are you complaining about Netherlands? You have easy access to Halifax and Huddersfield Road. Is it because you now have some of this traffic on your doorstep?

Secondly the experiment has not finished. What facts and figures have you decided that it has failed on?

You also have easy access to Huddersfield and Halifax Road, Mr Hall. Are you affected directly?

Huddersfield Road, Common Road, Abb Scott Lane are all in chaos with extra traffic. Spare a thought for us, we've had all this traffic cutting through the one road and yes it is a residential area, not a thoroughfare.

As for my assertion that there is more than one business on Common Road, it's a fact that a sandwich shop, a fish shop, a building and timber yard who access their yard via Common Road, Rainbow's nursery (post office now closed), Adante Freight and Hill Top School are all situated on Common Road.

As for Jack, yes he's all right, thanks to the peace and quiet of not having formula one on his doorstep.

K Smith, Cloverville Approach, Low Moor.

Junction problem?

SIR - With reference to the recent letters regarding Netherlands Avenue, personally I do not want this road closing at the junction with Halifax Road.

However, I have seen a dramatic drop in traffic using this road, with no queuing when exiting or entering Netherlands Avenue during peak-traffic periods.

This road is access only and means exactly that. Unfortunately the drivers who used this road as a short cut are now using the surrounding roads although, once again, the majority of these roads are access -only.

We have numerous rules, laws, speed limits, parking restrictions, etc which must be obeyed. If or when the road is reopened maybe it should be policed and fines given out when drivers break the law.

In my four years living in the area I have never been stopped by the police apart from when there has been an accident at the junction with Huddersfield Road. This, may I add, has been on numerous occasions - maybe this junction is the problem?

B Williamson, Cloverville Approach, Netherlands Avenue, Low Moor.

Just small change

SIR - I don't usually concern myself with minutia, but P E Bird's insistence on highlighting that a child's penny sweet increased 20 per cent on decimalisation (T&A, January 20) is laughable.

Why not go the whole hog and quote the increase on a halfpenny sweet (of which there were many) in monetary terms? Some readers might need their calculators but it's too small an amount for me to bother about.

As for rounding up amounts above nine shillings and ten pence to 50p, since when did any business remain solvent by rounding down?

Mr Bird's supposition is correct in that we do have a well-educated Chancellor. He could put most of us in the shade and can be forgiven for the occasional, and in this case unsubstantiated, peccadillo.

Oh, I nearly forgot. I bet Edward III's subjects thought that the silver groat was a fine coin too but I haven't seen many of those around recently.

David Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford

Pence and pounds

SIR - What a wonderful heart-warming letter from Mrs Elisabeth Guy (T&A, January 27) regarding decimalisation, and relating the story of how an 84-year-old gentleman at that time saw it.

It really amused me. I can easily see how this old gentleman's logic was working, since one day for his pound, he got 240 pennies, and the next day he only got 100. Consequently, in his mind he was 140 pennies short.

This has played on Mrs Guy's mind for a long time, as she could not refute the gentleman's logic, and made perfect sense to her.

Respectful to her wish that someone can sort out this teaser in a simple way, I will have a go.

I'm afraid the old gentleman had got it wrong. Although the loss in the number of pence, to him, was real, he could not see that the 'value' of his fewer new pence had increased.

Gary Lorriman, North Walk, Harden