Letters to the Editor

SIR - The story about plans for a children's home being approved at Low Moor (T&A, January 16) leads me to ask why we are gobbling up yet more green areas with development when Council-run care homes are closing, only to be sold to the highest bidder?

There are plenty of Council properties becoming empty which could be converted to house children in care at a fraction of the cost of developing yet more of our ever-dwindling green areas.

Why is the Council so hell-bent on establishing a children's home in a residential area? Answer: in an area inhabited by many people there is a better chance of even more people (indirectly) looking out for these kids - the more pairs of eyes, the more supervision.

Or put another way, it is the very people objecting to the development in the first place who will be unwittingly keeping tabs on the place.

The result is three-fold: someone makes an awful lot of money from the development; the Council has a secure area in which to house these kids; and it has its supervisory responsibilities taken care of by a ready-made community filled with prying eyes.

M J Petty, Haworth Road, Bradford.

Make 'em work

SIR - I often read in the T&A of police cracking down on crime, then I read the sentences in the Court File column.

For drugs, it's £40 with £50 costs; driving without insurance, fines between £20 and £220; theft brings probation or some may go to prison but until they make prison tougher that will never be a deterrent. All it does is take away their freedom.

So, instead of giving them such pathetic fines, might I suggest we put them all on community work? Lately, the T&A has been asking its readers to name grot spots and asking for volunteers to clean the place up. We don't need volunteers: put these tax and insurance dodgers on it. Who knows, we may have the cleanest city in England.

T Healey, St Matthews Road, Bankfoot, Bradford.

Valuable asset

SIR - Re the letter "A bad precedent?" (T&A, January 13), from Audrey Raistrick of the Forum Focused on Pensioner Power. May I say a word in defence of Councillor Phillip Thornton? To run somebody down who obviously cares about the pensioners' lot is tantamount to a power trip. Perhaps there is a modicum of jealousy here, in that Coun Thornton may steal Mrs Raistrick's thunder by actually doing something for the pensioners as opposed to talking about it!

As far as the FFOPP being non- political, what's all this about a Pensioners' Parliament then? Pull the other one, Audrey!

A group having links to the inside of the Council, albeit from a Labour-led initiative, would in my opinion be a valuable asset to the pensioner's cause. When the base has a solid structure, why not then put up a pensioner as a Pensioners' Party Councillor? By its very nature this issue cannot be non-political!

It is time that we, the pensioners, had a voice not only in local government but also in Whitehall!

Trevor Williams-Berry, Bredon Avenue, Wrose.

The true cost?

SIR - Brian Ford claims that the total road taxation revenue is £26 billion (Letters, January 19). While not challenging his figures I would, however, ask if that sum includes fuel duty, tax on insurance premiums, VAT on spares and repairs etc.

Another charge not normally mentioned is the cost of a driving licence in the first place which all drivers, hopefully, will have paid along with subsequent renewals.

If these other charges are not included, then the figure he quotes is seriously short of the actual total.

Derrick Hargreaves, Middlebrook Crescent, Fairweather Green

How to integrate

SIR - M Zafar is to be commended for his honest and intelligent comments regarding the disgraceful behaviour of a section of his community (T&A, January 16).

In the past, Mr Zafar has also shown his disapproval of how "politically correct" opinion has assumed that Muslims would be offended by our Christmas and other traditions. Intelligent Muslim opinion welcomes the opportunity to be able to worship freely without restriction, but would not seek special favours or dispensations or the undermining of a host country's customs and practices.

If the future of the Asian community is to be decided by people like Mr Zafar, then it will successfully integrate and prove to be an asset to the country. If left to organisations like the Commission for Racial Equality or some of Islam's more inward-looking community leaders, then the future seems less optimistic.

Alec Suchi, Allerton Road, Bradford

Show some pride

SIR - Like Bob Duckett (Letters, January 16), I too am truly astounded by the Bradford Council decision to stop selling local history books in the Central Libary.

Firstly, it stopped helping local authors publish some fine history books which the commercial world would not touch, now it will not even sell them.

Do they not realise the value of this contribution to local history? It must be so disheartening for these local people, most of whom are not doing it for profit, just pride.

Come on, Bradford, be proud of your heritage and support local authors.

Is not one of your prime aims to serve the community? It is no wonder with this blinkered attitude that the Capital of Culture bid was a non-starter.

John Stolarczyk, Clayton Hall Road, Cross Hills.

Racism concerns

SIR - The T&A reported that a couple of white men have been viciously attacked by a larger gang of Asian men. The white men were apparently called "white scum" yet the police are not treating this as a racially-motivated attack.

If it had been the other way round, the story would have been on the front page of the T&A and the police would leave no stone unturned to catch these "white racist bigots".

I was attacked by an Asian mob wielding a baseball bat outside a pub and when the police eventually arrived they said there was nothing they could do. The attack was not even reported in your newspaper.

Until the police start reporting such attacks on whites as racist attacks, then I feel they will escalate and certain Asian factions will alienate themselves from the rest of society as a result.

David Lister, Shetcliffe Lane, Bradford.

l Editor's note: "The T&A reports all such incidents fairly and accurately and without fear or favour. We can only report incidents if we know they've happened or have been informed of them by the police."

Apology wanted

SIR - I don't recall the name of the Defence Secretary in the mid-1950s when I did my National Service. However, if he is still alive, I would like to demand a personal apology from him for sending me to Malaya without the full protection of a mosquito net.

There was also the small matter of some nasty Communist terrorists taking pot-shots at us. We were advised to place our wallets in our top pocket for protection. It's surprising how much our £2 weekly wage would thicken up when converted to Malay dollars.

History will show that we won that one. I don't pretend to know what the eventual outcome in Iraq will be. However, I do know that self-inflicted wounding is a chargeable offence, so let's not shoot ourselves in the foot, eh?

Eddie Bennet, Duchy Drive, Heaton.

Pelican plea

SIR - The brilliant Bingley bypass has brought a little chaos at Saltaire as expected, but the time saved from Crossflatts to Saltaire must be ten to 20 minutes.

It may now be a good idea to replace the Saltaire zebra crossing with a pelican crossing and request the lovely lollipop people not to stop all the traffic for one man and his dog.

John Loftus, Albert Road, Saltaire.

Traffic nightmare

SIR - Now that our local school has resumed, I wonder if the kind gentleman who removed our cones - which we put out to protect our verges - would return and have the cars removed as quickly. They park illegally and try to make the said verges look like a ploughed field. Harehill Road and Renshaw Street are a traffic nightmare.

M Binns, Harehill Road, Thackley.