SIR - Isn't it about time councillors in Bradford are voted on by results? The Council has a great skill for having meetings. Of course the first meeting is to arrange the date of the next meeting. That meeting is then held to select the committee, and arrange the date for the next meeting.

The next meeting will be to vote on the committee, and of course the chairman. Now we will have to vote for a sub-committee to discuss the apparent sexist members of the previously unnamed committee.

So now that's sorted out and the "chairperson" is selected, the committee will set the agenda... oh and fix a date for the next meeting.

Scary isn't it... but believe me I know. I was part of that routine far too long.

You see the guidelines are, if you don't make a decision, you can't be held accountable. Sadly that is the problem with most large organisations, police, local authorities etc.

Unfortunately while all this goes on, Bradford business operators have to make decisions to keep their businesses running. We can't postpone our decisions until the climate is right.

So don't we deserve public servants who are accountable, and can make a decision once in a while?

Dean Loynes, Sixtyone Management Ltd, Manor Row, Bradford.

SIR -It doesn't bother me that David Ramsden's level of debate relies on the insult but I am concerned about his somewhat nave and ignorant opinions (Letters, October 16).

There is no moral equivalence between a deliberate, callous act of murder such as that perpetrated by Osama bin Laden and the considered, measured response of a democratic state co-operating with its allies. Mr Ramsden would be justified to criticise the bombing of Afghanistan as a strategy but shows no conception of morality in suggesting that it's an act of injustice.

Might I remind Mr Ramsden that, unlike in Afghanistan, he and those who share his misguided view can protest freely in public.

But, in accepting that freedom, Mr Ramsden seems unable to accept other people's freedom to invest their money, work hard, create and innovate - so as to make a profit.

Mr Ramsden, in criticising the free American and British systems, gives succour to those who would destroy our democracy and our freedoms. Does he really think that crying for peace will stop terrorists - supported as they are by dictatorships like Iraq, Libya and Cuba - murdering innocent people in their mission to destroy freedom and democracy?

Councillor Simon Cooke, Chellow Terrace, Chellow Dene, Bradford 9

SIR - I can sympathise with Mr Khan of Batley. He feels people belonging to his faith are misunderstood. In a similar way, people in this country who take the Christian faith seriously are often made fun of, or viewed as "odd".

I used to live not far from Mr Khan. I wonder if he knows that in the early 1960s the members of a Christian church, in Purlwell Lane, took the decision to close because they lacked enough people and money to continue?

Does he realise that they took the bold step of selling the site to the local Muslim community because they recognised that those people needed a place to worship? When they moved in, they used a building where Christian services had been conducted, and eventually built a splendid Mosque on the site.

Has he thought that the authorities of this country have perhaps facilitated the growth of his faith, by granting planning permission for the building of mosques in our towns and cities?

Here, we have the hard-won right to be free to choose to worship, something we should all be thankful for.

Barbara Bramley, Green Acre Close, Baildon.

SIR - Mr Khan (T&A Letters, September 15) deplored the West's and Christians' attitude to the way Islam treats it women. Firstly the criticism to which he objects is not aimed at Islam but at the Taliban in the main and to a lesser extent Iran's treatment of women.

If a nun were to break her vows in any way - vows which are taken voluntarily, by the way - she would not be beaten in public by the priests or hired thugs as women are in Afghanistan.

Western women can choose whether they want to take up a career or stay home with their children. And Western girls are allowed, indeed encouraged, to take up an education, forbidden in Kabul.

If your reader is going to criticise Western ways (and there are many to criticise) he should compare apples with apples, not pears.

P E Bird, Nab Wood Terrace, Shipley.

SIR - I have to find myself agreeing with the sentiment that the call for and indeed the pursuance of a further inquiry into this year's Bradford riots would be in part a waste of time and valuable other resources.

In our developing school, we are daily being challenged by the unacceptable behaviour of young people of all backgrounds and origins, and I would far rather see resources deployed in helping us to restore more morality to this city.

Morality in its widest sense, that is, with a re-emphasis at all possible levels on the difference between right and wrong, and less emphasis on individual rights and more on individual responsibilities and reducing the effects of poor and anti-social behaviour on the often silent majority.

J Law, Laisterdyke School, Thornbury Road, Bradford 3

SIR - In last Monday's T&A, there was a splendid picture from this year's Apple Day celebrations. As one of the joint organisers, I would like to take this opportunity to give people a little more information about the event.

Apple Day celebrates the diversity of our apple heritage, illustrated nicely by a display of over 60 varieties of apple. People had their apples identified, children made puppets and gave a performance, there were cooking demonstrations and an "apple caf" provided by the 1 in 12 Club. A few copies of the Apple Recipe booklet are still available from Carolyn at Bradford Community Environment Project, joint organisers, 01274 223236.

There were also art workshops, and one of the artists, Elizabeth Smith, had produced some spectacular orchard art with schools, funded by the Salts Foundation. This is on display in Central Library until Friday.

Also in the library is Bradford Environmental Education Service's display about Community Orchards. We are proposing a string of orchards around Bradford and are currently seeking opinion from interested people.

See you at Apple Day next year!

Julia Pearson, BEES (part of Bradford YMCA), Trinity Road, Bradford

SIR - Having just spent the last two weeks and three days in St Luke's Hospital, I must write to say how very well I was looked after and say a big thank you once again to the nurses and staff on Ward F4.

Winifred Pedder, Avery Tulip Court, Low Moor, Bradford.