Letters to the Editor

SIR - I know that many of your readers will have seen the Panorama investigation into Breast Cancer Services in Bradford on Sunday night.

Many elements of the programme are highly contentious and deliberately misleading.

I would like to reassure your readers that Breast Cancer Services at Bradford Teaching Hospitals are rated among the very best in the North of England.

This judgement has been made by both independent experts and, importantly, our own patients and support groups such as Bosom Friends.

Furthermore, the detailed review we have undertaken of patients treated in Bradford during the 1980s and 1990s shows that their outcomes (death rates and recurrence of cancer) are at least as good as for other hospitals in Yorkshire.

Miles Scott, Chief Executive, Bradford Royal Infirmary, Duckworth Lane, Bradford

Get to the facts

SIR - It is good to learn the Rev Paul Flowers's assumptions on public opinion on the Odeon issue (In My View, T&A, March 24).

However, regardless of any architectural judgement, I feel the two buildings - the Alhambra and the Odeon - look right together on that corner and it seems clear the Odeon's builders were trying to complement the earlier building.

I'm a comparative newcomer to Bradford and can't comment on anyone's memories of a former time but I do think a proper examination of the issues and costs involved should be undertaken.

Mr Flowers is saying sentiment is not a good reason to keep the building. Up to press there has been no hard evidence either way and he gives no reason why the building should be demolished.

The engineers' briefs on the Odeon and the hydrology of the water supply for the canal and their full reports have not been made public (if in fact full surveys have been done). Edited snippets have been published which leave many questions unanswered.

Our elected representatives have a duty to insist we, the public, are properly informed and consulted rather than accusing us of nostalgic dreaming.

J A Hackett, Dean Close, Bradford.

Replace our tree

SIR - I was interested in the article from the Safety Reps Association (T&A, March 22) asking people in workplaces to have a minute's silence on April 28 to remember those who were killed at work or in the workplace.

What I want to know is what happened to the memorial tree which was planted in Centenary Square quite a few years back? This was removed and never replaced when Centenary Square was overhauled.

This was a tree where flowers could be laid in memory of loved ones who had been killed at work or in the workplace and every year on April 28 a service was held near the tree in Centenary Square for these people.

The Bradford City fire memorial was replaced when the square was complete but not the tree. Why is this?

I am sure other people who have had family killed at work and attended these services are wondering the same.

Julie Stephenson, Longfield Drive, Dudley Hill.

Speak up, please

SIR - Your report anticipating the Executive's approval of the Parish Council Charter (T&A, March 20) mentions an aspect of the initiative in Bradford South which is causing me some disquiet.

Could I invite readers to write in addressing this issue before the relevant officers' "first draft" acquires too much momentum?

The suggestion is that each ward should constitute a parish council, which I believe to be a mistake born out of bureaucratic convenience.

A parish council is meant to embody a natural, historic community whereas most wards are transient administrative fictions.

My own constituency of Wyke would incorporate most of historic Low Moor, which would disappear from our ken, while cutting off the residents of Oakenshaw from the Primary School (Woodlands), which most of their youngsters attend, because the village has been dismembered by the M606.

Similarly, Great Horton surely comprises at least two quite distinct communities - that of the village proper and that of Lidget Green - and Scholemoor.

As for Royds, it hardly exists - folk come from either Buttershaw or Woodside.

Would readers please register their views at neighbourhood forums, meetings of Area South Committee and through their ward councillors?

Coun James Lewthwaite (BNP, Wyke), City Hall, Bradford

Council tax praise

SIR - Despite all the scaremongering in recent months, if you're single and live alone in a Band A property, as many do, you'll only pay an extra 44p per week council tax for year 2006-7, which will include 4p and 7p for the fire service and police respectively.

Even Yorkshire Water's 1.2 per cent increase above the national average in England and Wales will only add 31p to your weekly bill.

Together that's about the price of a sliced loaf, an amount that shouldn't keep anyone awake at night.

So congratulations to all concerned, especially Bradford Council who deserve an extra pat on the back for dispelling a lot of people's fears.

David Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford

Lesson for city?

SIR - A committee of MPs, no less, has reported that the much-vaunted Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park is much too expensive in maintenance - £250,000 per annum in fact.

This is in addition to a massive overspend (£2 million) on the proposed first cost of around £3 million.

And in many people's opinion, what a highly unimpressive memorial it is, as well as being a terrible responsibility for the park management.

Could this prove a lesson for the advocates of the city centre puddle, aka lake, and the new Bradford Beck, aka canal?

After all, everybody knows that internationally-renowned architects are mainly renowned for the impracticality of their designs, eg, Sydney Opera House and/or the size of the overspend needed to complete their projects: while the best consultants are chiefly noted for the size of their fees.

Ian R McDougall, Hawkswood Avenue, Heaton

Hypocritical MP

SIR - I think it is rather hypocritical of Marsha Singh MP to comment on killing bears for the making of bearskins for the Guards Regiments.

The country of his birth, India, has been condemned by the World Wildlife Fund for the cruelty inflicted on the bear population there, ie, bear-baiting and other tortures.

Owing to the run-down of the Guards regiments and the army in general, I don't imagine they need any more bearskins.

The ones they used to get were results of culling and the legalised hunting of the wild bear, not mass slaughter, as Mr Singh suggests (T&A, March 16). And as for using synthetic fur, this has proved to be no good.

Michael Breen, Bolton Hall Road, Bradford

Bomb saved many

SIR - In response to David Lawson (T&A, March 26), I don't know how old he is, or his knowledge of the situation in the Far East at the time, but before the bomb was dropped Emperor Hirohito had sent out the following message.

"Although the Japanese forces are in retreat, it is up to every soldier to fight to the death. If foreign forces land on Japanese soil it is up to every civilian to sacrifice themselves for the country."

Many lives were lost with the dropping of the bomb, but far more would have been lost without it.

Myself and very many others in the Far East were very grateful for it.

Colin Clinton, Salisbury Road, Frizinghall

Junction solution?

SIR - R J Lacey (T&A, March 23) states that the demolition of the Carnegie Library would worsen the congestion at the Fox Corner junction, but I think it would lessen it in the opposite direction.

If a wider-than-average vehicle wishes to turn right up Carr Lane it often means a long queue of traffic in the left-hand lane since Thackley-bound traffic is held up until that vehicle can turn right.

At busy times this often means waiting for the green filter and more congestion at Fox Corner.

Philip E Bird, Nab Wood Terrace, Shipley.