Letters to the Editor

SIR - With regards to the comment (T&A, November 24) regarding dangerous dogs.

As manageress of K9 Rehoming, a dog rescue centre, I come across hundreds of dogs a year. While I agree dogs should always be under control, I think the gist of the comment is very much misguided.

In 99 per cent of cases, owners are at fault. All dogs have the potential to be aggressive or dangerous, it's simply how they are brought up and cared for.

Dogs such as Akitas, bull terriers and Rottweilers have a bad reputation due to the way they are paraded around by idiots.

There seems to be a growing trend among certain age groups and cultures to be seen walking around with an imposing dog on the end of a lead. These are not genuine/caring dog owners but, generally, young lads who view the dogs as status symbols.

To claim, however, that certain breeds shouldn't be kept, or all dogs of specific breeds should be muzzled, is utter nonsense. Not all dogs can be tarred with the same brush.

Education is the key to ensuring that these so called "dangerous dogs" are able to live in suburban areas with no mishaps.

Helena Bentley, Ned Lane, Bradford.

Shortage of water

SIR - I read your feature on the latest opinion on the re-opening of the Bradford Canal (T&A, November 25).

I agree this is an attractive project and the waterway would be an asset to the city but there is still one problem.

Any canal needs a good supply of water, and although there were other factors, the original canal died from the lack of necessary quantity of water.

Arrangements had to be made to buy and pump enough from the Leeds and Liverpool canal at Shipley. Unless it is possible today to ensure supply from large reservoirs this will again be an ill-fated project.

Mrs J Ashworth, Station House, Gargrave.

Dead-end place

SIR - I am all for the new medical centre being built at Low Moor, but, why did they have to pull down an industrial landmark?

The old concrete wall supporting coal hoppers at the junction of Abb Scott Lane and Huddersfield Road has gone.

It is criminal, a crying shame, why was it not preserved as an industrial reminder? The massive flywheel now sits alone, its neighbour from the old days has gone to pastures new.

Who remembers the words "Low Moor Coal Company" painted in black on its long white wall? Who has old photos of the place in its heyday?

Which other Victorian structure is Bradford Council going to knock down? A city, once proud of its old buildings, is now a dump. A dead end at the main railway station and a joke in its transport system.

Where do you come from? I'm asked when I drive my lorry around the north. Oh, that place where the motorway ends in a field. Talk about a dead end.

B Barraclough, New Works Road, Low Moor, Bradford.

A great example

Sir - Congratulations to the T&A for initiating the "Clear the Air" campaign urging the Council, pub and restaurant owners and licensees to press the Government to bring in a full ban on smoking in confined public places.

We individuals can do our bit by writing to our own MPs.

When the health of Bradfordians is at stake, owners of local businesses would be performing an altruistic service by banning smoking in their own premises.

Such pioneering businesses could be given publicity in your paper as a way of saying thank you, and to encourage other businesses to follow their example.

Atma Trasi, Kirkgate, Shipley.

Smoking facts

Sir - So, our 'fact-lite' MP Chris Leslie is at it again, spouting statistical nonsense (T&A, November 15) when he claims "smoking is bad economically because it costs the NHS millions".

Let's examine the real facts as Gordon Brown knows them.

Smokers contribute around £5 in Excise Duty and VAT for every £1 spent on their NHS treatment.

Add to that the Corporation Taxes paid by tobacco companies and PAYE/National Insurance paid by their employees. Then add the benefits saved by the staff having jobs plus the billions saved from paying State Pensions to early-dying smokers, and you get an entirely different picture.

This is not a defence of the smoking habit, merely an attempt to help Mr Leslie to stop gaily leaping on to every passing bandwagon in the pursuit of his personal profile, littering the stage with spurious, inaccurate statistics at every turn.

And, in view of the above, perhaps we now have a legitimate occupant for that empty plinth in Trafalgar Square. This 'Hero of our Nation', this 'Saviour of our National Finances': let's raise a statue to 'The Unknown Smoker', without whom we would all pay higher taxes and have fewer services.

Graham Hoyle, Kirkbourne Grove, Baildon.

Broken promises

SIR - In 1980 when Mrs Thatcher broke the link between pensions and wages, the pension stood at 23 per cent of the average national earnings.

Now, in 2004, the percentage has dropped to 15 per cent. Therefore pensions are £56.24 per week less than they would have been if the link to average national earnings been restored as Tony Blair promised before the 1997 election.

This works out at a shortfall of £2,944.48 per year for a single pensioner.

There is no chance of me voting Labour again.

Thomas Craig, Mount Avenue, Eccleshill.

A tax on gum?

Sir - I recently made my bi-annual venture into the area laughingly called the city centre.

I read regularly of the empty shops, derelict buildings and the lack of any interesting shops to become excited by but was dismayed to see what a dismal, unappetising, barren desert the centre has become.

However, there is one retail outlet that must be thriving. This is the one that sells all the chewing gum that dapples the streets wherever you walk.

Walking down what used to be bustling Ivegate, I saw all the white splodges on the flags and in my naivety thought they were the results of the flocks of starlings that used to roost in Bradford. At least their deposits washed away when it rained, not so these patches of gum.

I also remembered how the council cured the problem of the starlings and the thought that this could be applied to the people who insist on depositing this gum everywhere crossed my mind. Or is pest control too extreme?

Perhaps, as an alternative, a local tax could be imposed on every pack of gum sold in order to fund the cleaning-up.

Derrick Hargreaves, Middlebrook Crescent, Fairweather Green, Bradford.

Stop arguing...

SIR - I read a letter from J R Smith (T&A, November 24) regarding retired persons action groups.

I don't know the name of the rival group. I say rival because that is how it seems to me, that it's all about one-up-manship proving that one is better than the other.

Surely the whole idea is that both are fighting for the same, so why not amalgamate?

It's the old adage 'United we stand, divided we fall'.

My husband and I are both pensioners but after reading about all the tit-for-tat attitudes they have we wouldn't want to belong to either of them.

R Rushworth, Knoll Park Drive, Baildon.

Not so safe now

Sir - How can Peter Hain possibly believe that life under a Labour government keeps us safer from terrorist attacks? Surely the complete opposite is true?

Since the government insisted on bamboozling the nation into invading Iraq, the threat of terrorism to this country has been dramatically increased.

Makes you wonder whether Peter Hain and his cabinet colleagues are on a permanent diet of magic mushrooms! They're obviously in cloud-cuckoo land!

Liz Balding, Ellar Carr Road, Cullingworth.