Letters to the Editor

One of these was the general lack of community participation in schemes such as those funded from SRB. This has not been redressed by Regen 2000. The bids submitted for funding and those that have been approved are mainly council-based projects, government bodies and agencies and the usual grant junkies who know how the bidding system works. No real attempt has been made to go into the community to encourage "normal community members" to put in bids or assist in the complex bid process .

The net effect is that the community feels no attachment or affiliation to the Regen projects which are supposed to improve their economic and social well-being. Questions must be asked about the Council's influence on Regen as an accountable body and in particular whether Regen is nothing but another Council department .

Before it is too late Regen needs to show its substance to the community it serves and stop being like the houses on Barkerend Road - nice fronts but decrepit behind.

Amar Rashid, Chellow Lane, Bradford 9.

SIR - Michael Breen states that the Conservative and Lib Dem councillors are keeping very quiet over the nine per cent council tax increase.

Well for his information the Southern regions - ie London, Essex and the Home Counties - have had swingeing hikes in their council tax bills (my own is up by 26 per cent).

Why is this? Central government has reduced the grants to the councils in the South so that they can award larger grants to the northern cities including Bradford. OK for Bradford this time round, but what about next time? Central government might decide to channel central funds to other schemes or areas and then you might find you are facing much bigger increases in your council tax bills in the North next time round.

Does Mr Breen really think Labour could do better? Wake up. If Labour were in power locally you would probably see them spending money on hare-brained schemes and increasing your council tax bills significantly higher than they are now.

A C Clark, Porters Avenue, Dagenham, Essex.

SIR - It might not seem much to some people, but has anyone noticed how many new shops have opened or are opening in the centre of Bradford just recently?

Book Box on Broadway, The Scooter People on Bank Street, Footlocker, Streetwise Sports and Jessops on Kirkgate, The Works and Ponden Mill within Littlewoods, Select, Ann Summers, Gamestation and Shop @ Panasonic in Darley Street.

Now, more than ever before, is a strong feeling that Bradford is starting to move forward.

I hope more people begin to shop in the city centre. Despite what many people may think, Bradford is a good place to shop. Break the old routine and get down there!

Jack MacPherson, Killinghall Road, Bradford 3.

SIR - My mother (age 93, infirm, confused, almost totally blind) needed examination at BRI eye department recently. My sister, whose car displays an orange "Disabled" sticker, took her, but all pay and display parking spots were occupied.

By the ENT main entrance designated disabled parking spaces exist. These were occupied but a small space actually at the corner remained. My sister parked in it, orange sticker clearly visible.

On the main road, with such a sticker, reasonable parking would have been allowed, including on double yellow lines. Not at the BRI! The vehicle received a parking ticket -- not for obstruction (which the note ruled out) but for parking in a space not specifically allotted for parking. Her car number had been logged and the sticker threatened action for further infringements.

Such treatment of the community's most vulnerable patients is a disgrace. There was no attempt to make contact over the public address system. Nothing but threats. No flexibility due to the clear disabled sticker.

Huge amounts of cash have been spent on the hospital, including a ridiculous unnecessarily ornate doorway, but never any improvements in parking.

Next time they will provide a taxi-ambulance or I will know the reason why!

D K Rayner, Canford Drive, Bradford

SIR - Last Saturday evening I attended a concert given by the Bradford Festival Choral Society at St George's Hall, with works by Mendelssohn and Rossini. This was a very enjoyable high-quality concert, unfortunately attended by fewer than 500 people.

I understand that next season, their 147th, could be their last due to lack of finance, caused by rising costs and falling audience numbers. Will I have to go to Leeds for a similar concert?

I find it hard to believe that Bradford claims to be "a Capital of Culture".

Bradford needs a smaller concert hall, with safe parking to meet the requirements of the city.

Arthur J Pointon, Heaton Park Drive, Heaton.

SIR - Who will human shield Uzma Bashir choose when faced with the chaos of urban warfare in Baghdad? Saddam or the Marines? My advice to her and other shields would be grow up, shut up and get out while you can!

Ian Elsworth, Pennythorne Drive, Leeds.

Saddam's reward?

SIR - Saeeda Naz is correct in saying, in effect, that we all reap what we sow. Perhaps the current terror is Saddam reaping decades of murder and torture? Or is it for the New York atrocity? Or the Bali bombing?

Maybe it's for the bombings of two hotels in Nairobi, Kenya, or could it be the Lockerbie outrage? Perhaps it even goes all the way to 1972 and the mass murder of innocent unarmed Israeli athletes in Munich.

Saeeda Naz seems to have decided all the bad are non-Muslims. As for playing God who does that most?

Khomeini and his "holy" war against Iraq, after imprisoning and terrorising innocent American embassy staff? Saddam with his urging of young men to die for him believing God is on his side? And of course Bin Laden and his mass murderers in his God's name?

The sooner humanity gets rid of its fearsome gods the better for all of us.

Eric Firth, Wellington Street, Wilsden.

SIR - Can I be the only person who has noticed how extreme the language of anti-hunting correspondents has become now, especially L Dobson (March 18) in his or her letter responding to the halal debate.

Their - including L Dobson's - terminology is aggressive and deliberately denigrates anyone associated with hunting or country sports. Words such as "sadists", "odious" and "perverted" are regularly used to describe anyone involved with hunting.

Hunting people come from all parts of society, from all age groups and all classes. People who go hunting are no different to those who do not. They are ordinary parents, grandparents, nurses, doctors, builders, farmers and people of every kind.

Dehumanising them and creating the impression that they are a minority to be despised is a tactic of extremism and the servant of fascism.

John Haigh, Regional Director, Yorkshire Countryside Alliance, Front Street, Thirsk

SIR - I have recently undergone surgery on Ward A3 St Luke's Hospital. From the moment of walking on to the ward I was met with smiling faces and friendliness.

Having surgery is a trauma in itself. Be reassured the staff on A3 cannot be praised enough in my eyes. I especially want to thank the anaesthetist for her one-to-one care. A sense of humour is needed in the nursing profession and it certainly showed on A3, where nothing was too much to ask.

Mrs Shirley Thompson (Marie Curie nurse), Harbour Crescent, Wibsey.

SIR - Although not a historian, somewhere in the recesses of my mind I thought Hitler was dead!

Hell no! He's alive and kicking as Mayor of New York, with his blanket ban on smoking, branding nearly two million people undesirables.

Perhaps he will open concentration camps for them to be force-fed nicorette chewing gum?

What next for these health Nazis? Alcohol, burgers, chips?

Alan Holdsworth, Chippendale Court, Menston.

SIR - As an unapologetic patriot, what I find really distasteful is the traitorous comments of people who really ought to know better, the prime example being veteran Labour MP George Galloway, right, whose warped sense of political reality not only led him to a verbal attack on Tony Blair that fell just short of slander, but also saw him calling for British soldiers to revolt and disobey orders.

The British armed forces are far too professional to take any real notice of lunatic fringe politicians like Galloway, but couldn't he do us all a real favour and now put up or shut up?

Better still - move to Iraq and stay there!

A J Clarke, Halifax Road, Bradford 6.