SIR - In response to the recent letter from James Trevelyan about the need for investment in public transport, I thought it would be useful to point out what Metro is doing to develop services and facilities for passengers.

In its 20-year RailPlan 5, Metro has set out firm plans to develop a number of new railway stations for the West Yorkshire rail network including Low Moor and Apperley Bridge in the Bradford area. A study into their projected impact upon the existing network is currently underway and Metro is developing funding partnerships.

A permanent, heavy rail link between Bradford's Forster Square and Interchange stations has been ruled out on a number of occasions on grounds of both cost and feasibility. However, following Government approval for the Supertram network in Leeds, the possibility of further light rapid transport links are being investigated.

I can assure Mr Trevelyan and your readers that Metro see public transport as vital to the ongoing development of Bradford and will continue lobbying the Government and forging innovative partnerships to find resourceful and high-quality solutions.

Councillor John Prestage, Bradford District Spokesperson for the PTA, Wellington Street, Leeds.

SIR - Re the enforced closure of "Spoilt 4 Choice Caf" in Idle. It seems obvious to me that members of the planning committee cannot differentiate between a caf opening during the day and the evening takeaways which have proliferated with the full approval of this committee.

Now it seems they are regretting this generosity and penalising the wrong people, ie the caf owners.

Admittedly they failed to obtain the necessary permission, but why are the Council now adopting this dog-in-the-manger attitude now it has been requested?

This caf provides not only refreshment, but a social focus for a large group of village residents, something missing in takeaways. Here we have a local shop expanding and in doing so encouraging people to shop in the village and being punished for showing initiative!

We have few enough real shops in the village without them being discouraged by the intransigent attitude of councillors.

Margaret Wilkinson, Fourlands Road, Idle.

SIR - I missed the BBC Six O'clock News piece which uncritically repeated the line being spun by apologists for the Bradford rioters.

Given the editorial stance of the BBC under Greg Dyke, I am, however, hardly surprised. This is a man with some strange one-sided views on what amounts to racist behaviour - cheerfully labelling his own organisation as "grotesquely white". Could you imagine a leader of a national organisation remaining in his post if he described any other racial grouping as being "grotesquely" predominant?

I recall the BBC reporting in the first 24 hours after riots. The London 'chatterati' were describing rioting involving "white and Asian youths" - clearly implying a six of one, half dozen of the other, situation.

Only after viewing their own footage, presumably many times, did they adjust the line to "mainly Asian" youths. Some reprehensible yobbery on Ravenscliffe another day later usefully prevented them from having to adjust even nearer to the truth.

However, the myth of BBC reliability has long been blown. I recall a military history quoting a 1944 unit diary from Normandy saying: "A signal honour fell to the Division today - it captured an objective ahead of the BBC!"

M Pollard, Moorfield Drive, Baildon.

SIR - Through your esteemed newspaper I would like to inform the public at large that there is difference of opinion about integration.

Most of the indigenous people think that mixed marriages are the answer to all of our problems, including understanding and harmony within the communities.

However I believe that there is more then one way to achieve understanding and harmony than just mixed marriages, which have created far more problems for many people, including identity crises for the children worse than any of us can imagine.

Understanding and harmony can be achieved by playing, studying and working together, helping each other and by being good neighbours.

Mubarik Iqbal, Oulton Terrace, Bradford.