SIR - I am appalled that charges are to go up in Council leisure centres because of increased fuel costs.

They provide an excellent public service in the face of cut-throat competition from the private sector.

How many times have we all been in an office, a school or a leisure centre where the temperature is excessive? How many are fitted with thermostats? How many ask staff and customers to turn off lights and stand-bys when a facility isn't in use?

Just one of these simple conservation measures - turning down the thermostats by one degree centigrade - would go a long way to making higher charges unnecessary.

We all have a responsibility to save the planet', but institutional managers, be they in schools, hospitals or leisure centres, must take the lead.

At the moment it is clear that all these latter-day Greens, from Cameron to Blair to our own dear Council, are just gushing hot air.

Quentin Deakin, Shipley Green Party Press & Publicity Officer, Newark Road, Crossflatts