SIR - As a child, I lived at Bierley among green fields. Buttercups, daisies, the bluebell woods, Brooms Hill and Dawson Lane on my way to Highfield School, the blessed pure air straight across from Morecambe.

One heard many stories of Bierley over the years as we had moved away.

In the years after the war, I used to take nostalgic visits back with my childhood friend Dorothy and the days came back of long ago.

I am now aged, but my spirit remains ever young. I have returned to live in sheltered housing in almost (to me) a "Sugar Bread House".

The green is green. There are bluebells still. I see the horses. All the new houses are going up, bright and sparkling.

The air is pure and my beloved Bierley is rising like a phoenix from the ashes. And I am happy here.

Miss Doreen Brook, Dunsford Avenue, Bierley.

SIR - The item "Every Child's Right" (North of Watford, May 11) was misleading in its suggestion that the 60,000 children in public care all need adoptive homes.

Adoption is the best option for some children, and there is an undoubted need for more prospective adopters to come forward.

However, the vast majority of the children in public care in the UK live with foster carers or in residential homes on a temporary basis and will move back with their own families. These children do not need a new family but rather to be given the highest standard of care until such time as they can return home.

Current changes in adoption laws and policy are welcome, but the Government now needs to give the same level of attention to the many more children who are in foster or residential care.

Gerri McAndrew, Executive Director, The Fostering Network, Blackfriars Road, London, SE1.

Pensioners' plea

SIR - My husband and I were delegated to attend the Annual Pensioners Parliament with 3,000 delegates representing the interests of 11 million pensioners. The pensioners' movement is the most rapidly expanding in the country and is growing in strength day by day.

This country, despite being the fourth richest in the world, does not reflect that wealth in our pensions. We must be part of the policy-making decisions at local and national level, regarding all those things that most affect our lives - eg social/economic welfare, and health, education, policing, housing, transport etc.

Since it appears that young people are disaffected, it rests with us to address the issues which affect all of us.

The Mayor of London has a panel or pensioners he consults and so should Bradford Council. Ignore us at your peril!

We are a very powerful section of the community and we urge all pensioners to join our Action Group to obtain the recognition we deserve and fight for the campaigning principles enshrined in our Declaration of Intent.

We demand that retired people are entitled to a decent standard of living, commensurate with our EEC partners, consideration and dignity and support through our social services.

Audrey Raistrick, Retired People's Action Group, 44 Oakdale Drive, Bradford, BD10 0JF.

SIR - No surprise to see Airedale NHS Trust poaching staff from overseas. Instead of nurse managers going on some "junket" to poach staff from a Third World country, why not pay our nurses a decent wage instead?

I'm a qualified nurse myself, I've had my own business employing nurses and care assistants. But it disgusts me that the trusts can take nurses trained and paid for by Third World countries.

That this is all condoned by the Government makes it even worse! Not only is this a form of industrial theft, there's the matter of exploitation (usually paid a lower wage for several months during induction), and there's the language and cultural differences.

I work in hospitals in the capital and have seen first-hand a dilution of care as a consequence of inexperience of our nursing procedures by many of these foreign nurses.

Anton Clark, Porters Avenue, Dagenham, Essex.

SIR - Relevant to the problems at Leeds-Bradford airport is the fact that anyone coming from London does not have a choice of flights.

Sometimes I take an overnight flight from New York to London and because the airline does not land until 7am, there is not enough time to get my luggage off, go to another terminal, and get on a plane to Leeds/Bradford.

So I am forced to sit until 1pm to get the next flight up. Ever done an overnighter, then sat in an airport for six hours waiting for the next flight? So, I always fly into Manchester.

Last year, I flew up from London to Manchester, and I was in Bradford four hours before that flight landed at 2pm.

So I think that the airlines who deal with that airport should adjust the scheduling, or another airline should be used to service the airport for the convenience of people who want to get in and out of there. After all, it is supposed to be the gateway to the Dales. But just getting there is the problem.

Diane Duguid, E 4th St, Deer Park, New York, USA.

SIR - A new study by Oxford Economic Forecasting underlines the serious dangers to Britain of locking into the euro at the wrong rate and giving up control of our economy.

It concludes that joining the euro would substantially increase economic volatility in the UK and trigger a return to the days of boom and bust.

According to the study, locking into the euro at ten per cent too high an exchange rate would increase unemployment by 275,000. Industrial production would be particularly badly hit, falling by 5.7 per cent in the first two years.

However, locking into the euro at ten per cent too low an exchange rate would fuel inflation in the first four years of membership. The rise in inflation would undermine competitiveness and lead to a bust with falling GDP and a sharp rise in unemployment later in the economic cycle.

Britain currently has the fourth largest economy in the world. We have lower inflation, lower unemployment, lower taxes and higher growth than most countries in the Eurozone.

Why should we risk our current success for a political experiment that will lead to a rise in inflation and higher unemployment?

Martin Fojt, HR Director, Emerald, Toller Lane, Bradford 8.

SIR - I want to draw the public's attention to the notorious accident blackspot - the junction of Thornton Road with Allerton Road and Chat Hill Lane.

I cross Thornton Road at this junction twice every day, so I see how dangerous it is. Today when I got there, there were police cars, police officers, a photographer, and the tangled mess of cars at the road side.

This is getting to be an all-too-common sight here, and I for one think it is about time something was done.

It needs traffic lights, or possibly a roundabout. Or do we have to wait until there is a huge accident involving many fatalities?

If something doesn't change and soon, someone will be counting the cost of a life.

Ruth Maxwell-Hudson, Broadway, Bingley.

SIR - I read with dismay and disappointment the decision of West Yorkshire Police to abort the peace march planned for Bradford. How short-sighted. It would have been a wonderful opportunity for ALL the people of this city to unite.

Together we could have shown the world's media and above all the mindless minority who rioted that Bradford has moved on.

I urge the police authority to think again. To allow this march would give every Bradfordian the chance to walk the same road.

The road will no doubt be long and hard, with many twists and turns. But it is a road we must all walk. It is the road to integration.

R Stott, Pasture Lane, Clayton.