Letters to the Editor

SIR - I would like to express my great concern at the proposed closure of Shipley New Start Centre and to stress the extreme value and importance it is to the community and the people of Shipley.

I, together with many, many others have had the privilege of attending courses there and I have observed the way the under-privileged and the disabled are honoured and encouraged to learn and mature in many different ways and to become accepted and valued members of our town.

I have also been aware of how the older people of our town are not discarded after a certain age but are valued and trained in new skills and are enabled to continue to be useful, effective and needed members of the society, as are the young mums with babies and small children enabled to continue their education and acquire training in many needy areas.

The courses, tutors, facilities and administration are excellent and the tremendous effort and commitment given by staff members and supporters certainly warrant the funding given.

I would strongly recommend that this funding be continued to allow this very important and practical facility to remain open.

Janet Crowther, Thackley Old Road, Shipley.

Voice your feelings

SIR - May I fully endorse letters in the T&A regarding the proposed closure of Shipley New Start. The activities are many and varied and for all ages. If Shipley New Start closes it will be a sad day, not only for present users but for future generations denied the chance to use its excellent facilities.

Tomorrow (Thursday) at 5pm in City Hall there is an open meeting to discuss this council recommendation. It would be nice if many of the hundreds of people who have used New Start over the past 24 years would attend to voice their objections to the proposed closure.

Eric Mortimer, Guardian Croft, Westcliffe Road, Shipley.

A soft target

Sir - It is bad enough that 600 hours a week of youth work has been cut in the district, but I would not want readers to assume the £1 million cut was to cover overspends in the stretched Youth Service - oh that it had been.

No the soft target of youth work is being ground down to cover a range of overspends in Regeneration and the growing Chief Executive's Office. Those more than outweigh the over spend in Social Services.

They also took £100,000 out of Early Years that was for the qualified teacher input into Neighbourhood Nurseries.

The last budget was as we said a pre-election Lib Dem-Tory stitch up and is coming apart at the cost of the young people of Bradford.

Coun Ralph Berry, (Labour, Wibsey), City Hall, Bradford.

Broken promise

SIR - Mr Kendall is perfectly correct in stating that tenants should still have the right to buy (T&A, October 18).

Along with the 108 directors of Bradford Council Housing Trust (particularly the 48 tenant directors) I fought long and hard to obtain a promise that the right to buy for existing tenants and transferring to the Trust would not alter.

Now Mr Palmer is trying to break this promise because of apparent financial problems occurring before the Trust is even two years old.

As chair of CARE and an ex-director of the Trust, I have written to both John Prescott and Keith Hill requesting that Bradford Council Housing Trust be made to adhere to this vital promise.

If this promise is broken what comes next? The promise to restrain rent increases?

If I was to offer any advice it would be to buy now before the rules change.

Mike Stocks, chairman, Community Association for Regeneration of Estates, The Coppies, Delph Hill, Wyke.

Driven to despair

Sir - Re: bus usage in Bradford, and the fact that we have one of the highest drive-to-work figures in the UK, from the end of October the 647/747/651 Bradford-Yeadon-airport buses are stopping.

The replacement, while all well and good for some, will not cover Apperley Bridge. It duplicates other services via Shipley/Guiseley, and will take longer.

How are we ever going to encourage people out of their cars and onto buses, if the services are cut or re-routed?

It currently takes me over three hours per day to travel to work by public transport (or one hour by car). I don't relish this journey taking any longer, but it will once the existing service is cut.

How are people in Apperley Bridge going to get anywhere? There will be no service at all covering that section in or out of Bradford.

I found out about this cut from a fellow passenger, as there is no information about it on the buses. I am afraid no one will be enticed onto public transport, unless it goes where people want it, actually turns up and runs at useful times.

L Peace, Park Grove, Queensbury.

No need to panic

SIR - New laws on how disabled people are treated at work and when they apply for a job come into force on this month and for the first time 1.1 million small businesses will be affected.

One in five people of working age is disabled - from having arthritis or diabetes to being hearing or visually impaired. In fact many of you who run a small business will already be employing a disabled person, possibly without knowing it, as many disabilities are not obvious.

Changes to comply with the new law are just part of getting the best out of people.

My message to employers is: don't panic. The new laws mean small businesses need to make 'reasonable' changes to the way they employ people to ensure that the many disabled people who want to work can do so.

Most adjustments are simple and low, or no, cost and Job Centre Access to Work schemes may be able to help financially with any changes that need to be made.

For more information and to obtain a helpful free guide - Top Tip for Small Businesses - visit the DRC website at www.drc-gb.org or telephone the DRC Helpline on 08457 622633.

Stephen Almbritis, Federation of Small Businesses and Disability Rights Commission, Commissioner, Stratford upon Avon.

Generous support

SIR - May I thank everyone who helped to make the Arthritis Research Campaign collection at Morrisons, Thornbury, such a marvellous success. Our small but gallant band of loyal collectors raised £516.23. At Sainbury's, Keighley, we raised £155.91 on the same day.

Huge thanks to the public for their generous support and to the staff and management of Morrisons and Sainsbury's for their kind hospitality, and also to our collectors.

Anyone wishing for further information about our activities, should contact me at any time, when I will be only too pleased to answer your inquiries.

Anyone interested in giving us some help, what are you waiting for? Get in touch! We need you desperately.

Mrs E M Sharp, Bradford Branch Hon Secretary, The Gables, 48 Bradford Road, Menston, LS29 6BX.

Simply fuming

SIR - "This is a No Smoking building. Please put out your cigarettes or move to the designated area where smoking is allowed."

So goes the voice on the tannoy system at Bradford Interchange. What happens? Smoking in all areas. There is nobody informing the smokers to move to the special area.

The powers that be ought to be acting with on-the-spot fines or alternately making the entire building No Smoking at all.

N Barwick, Kingston Close, Wilsden.