Letters to the Editor

Sir - Mrs Gill is right to be concerned about traffic in Wibsey (T&A June 29), especially the inconsiderate behaviour of drivers at all junctions and crossings.

Councillor Green and I have had several meetings with highways officers and residents in respect of the new plans being developed to address these problems.

A fundamental is driver impatience and almost resentment of there being pedestrian crossings.

Fortunately we have won commitments to movable speed cameras on Beacon Road, Moore Avenue and St Enoch's which all suffer from excessive speeds that endanger pedestrians and road users.

The objective has to be to change driver behaviour and increase awareness of pedestrians and safety. We have a lot of children to think of.

For drivers a bit of care and thought should not make life worse or even slower.

Coun Ralph Berry, City Hall, Bradford.

Postal 'arrogance'

Sir - It has been reported this week that the Government is pressing ahead with plans for all-postal balloting in the referendums for regional assemblies.

According to reports in the national media, the Government has ignored pleas from the Electoral Commission not to proceed with these ballots until it has published its own evaluation of the European and local election pilots. The same reports also suggest the Commission wants tighter rules to avoid fraud and intimidation.

Bradford Councillors have expressed all-party opposition to postal voting and MPs of all parties have expressed concerns about the recent all-postal ballot elections.

Last week the Government assured MPs that it would reconsider its plans for the autumn referendums if there was reason to do so.

Labour listens to no-one. Pressing ahead with more postal ballots despite widespread concerns and the assurances which the Government gave last week, reeks of arrogance.

Conservatives will oppose plans which deny voters the chance to vote in the ballot box.

Robert Collinson, Prospective Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Keighley, Churchill House, North Street, Keighley.

Here we go again

Sir - The clock is ticking furiously towards November when the combination of the less compos mentis and fireworks doesn't bear thinking about.

What carnage will be wrought this year to humans, animals and property alike? I dread to think!

There have been many complaints from all and sundry asking for firework sales to be banned to the general public, with a provision that only licensed operators should be able to purchase and put on firework displays.

So why has this been ignored? Is this another Blairism, namely "leave it alone and it will go away"? I think this problem needs addressing immediately.

Legitimate gun ownership has been banned and yet the powers-that-be are providing lunatics with legal explosives. The question must be asked: "Who are the lunatics?"

Trevor Williams-Berry, Bredon Avenue, Wrose.

Fair play plea

SIR - Why do most British people believe there are only two major parties to vote for with one hanger-on, the Lib Dems?

With these Scot-dominated denying the English a government, like the Scots, Welsh and Irish have, then there will be no fair play for the English in their own country.

Get off your knees Englishmen and demand your own government, then a new "British" party can be elected who will do more for Britain than these three old-fashioned parties whose only excuses are what mistakes the other parties have done in the past.

None of them have any referendum except to hand more and more powers to Brussels and the EU. Who wants to belong to the EU?

The French burn and paint our lamb, ban our beef and do what they want. The EU fleet mainly Spanish are depleting our fishing grounds but we can't fish in EU waters. How's that for a fishing policy.

It always has to suit the EU never Britain. I say let's get out now.

N Brown, Peterborough Place, Undercliffe.

Throw him out

SIR - Re Chris Leslie's "warning" to the Bradford & Bingley (T&A, June 26), I do not know the extent of the MP's business acumen but I can guess.

What arrogance from this man that he feels he is in a position to warn the company.

He made a dig at the B&B's loss of mutuality. This was the members' decision, like it or not, just as I have had to put up with the electorate's choice of MP.

Perhaps and I fervently hope he'll be thrown out at the next election.

P E Bird, Nab Wood Terrace, Shipley.