Letters to the editor

SIR - Replying to Michael Breen's letter (T&A, March 16) re Listers Mill, I just have to say, yes I too am Bradford born and bred, having lived in the shadow of the mill all my life and lived "behind the mill" for the past 34 years.

We have waited for a long time for something to be done to this wonderful building. This area is becoming alive again and to see the mill lit up by the people taking possession is great.

There is also a new Westbourne Green Community Centre at the junction of Heaton Road and Oak Lane, new pavements being laid and the main roads updated.

I'm sure the people who live in the surrounding area will agree with what I say.

I just want to say a great big thank you to all the people concerned in bringing this transformation to Listers Mill, and to Manningham Mills Community Association for their work in establishing a new community centre in the mill for the benefit of the local community.

Mrs Joyce Bean, Lilycroft Walk, Bradford.

The way forward

SIR - The "decriminalisation of crime" described by Gary Lorriman (T&A, March 16) is an ongoing process driven by the government's obsession to restrict the number of prison inmates.

So far they have made it ever more difficult to send people to prison, reduced prison sentences, and invented ways of releasing prisoners even earlier, with total disregard for public safety.

Prison becomes a less and less likely consequence of crime, and criminals know it.

I can think of three possible ways forward:

1. Forget government targets and build more prisons.

2. Send repeat offenders to some uninhabited, windswept, rain-drenched island off the coast of Scotland.

3. Lock up decent citizens for their own safety, leaving the streets to the anti-social maniacs.

L Hobsbaum, Willow Crescent, Bradford.

No shortage here

SIR - Regarding the front page "Battle to stop homes deluge" (T&A, March 10). I went along to the Victoria Hall at Saltaire to hear the presentation from the Yorkshire and Humber assembly.

First of all I have to say what an abysmal turnout - only 50 or so people went, despite a free buffet and tea and coffee.

There was talk of plenty of "affordable houses" possibly along a canal which was also in the plan for the increased population over the next ten years. What wasn't mentioned was larger hospitals, more dentists, more graveyards, schools and essential services to cope with the influx.

They also skimmed the surface of what will happen to all the waste the extra population will create.

With more than 400 homes for sale each week in the T&A, I had to ask: "Do we really need any more housing other than what we have now, plus the new houses already being built at present in Sandy Lane, Cottingley, Barkerend, Allerton, Buttershaw, Queensbury, Horton Bank Top, etc, etc?"

So many people are leaving West Yorkshire that there will be plenty of houses of every type to purchase if they ever do arrive.

Jenny Sampson, Rossmore Drive, Allerton.

Pensions disgrace

SIR - Nobody should be surprised that Tony Blair and his government have rejected the Ombudsman's report on pensions and disagreed with her findings.

It's the hallmark of this government to disagree with independent adjudicators and consider that they are right in all things.

So 88,000 pensioners, who have lost their life savings, will not get any compensation, no matter that they were assured by government their pensions were safe.

It would cost £15 billion, bleats Blair. He may be right, but that is a third of the £45 billion Gordon Brown has taken out of pension funds over the past nine years, an amount which has quite clearly contributed to the difficulties in which those 88,000 pensioners, and many hundreds of thousands more, find themselves.

Not for them the ability to re-mortgage their homes several times to launder sums of half a million quid.

All they want is their own money back and a bit of justice from a government that promised them pension safety, yet moved the goalposts several times.

When are Blair and Brown, and the rest of this contemptible government, going to face up to the problems their policies have created?

Alan Carcas, Cornmill Lane, Liversedge.

Loosen up...

SIR - If David Rhodes visited his local library and studied what has transpired over the last 100 years in the art section, perhaps he could loosen up a little and enjoy the painting by Amrik Varkalis which I would like to see in the flesh.

Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Bradford.