SIR - Bradford people should be delighted that imaginative plans exist for the future of this once-important city. Bradford really is fighting for its survival as a place that is interesting from an aesthetic and commercial point of view.

We live in a highly-mobile world and people can make choices about where they shop and do business. Looking around today there are signs of economic improvement. Landscape and architectural jewels are dotted about for enlightened people to enjoy.

However, the city centre is the most important feature and improvements are necessary because appearance most certainly influences opinion. It is therefore crucial that the planners are inspirational in their thinking. My first thoughts are that the examples on offer in the masterplan for the city seem to lack that special "X" factor.

The buildings are ordinary and even the provocative water idea is seriously lacking in oomph. May I suggest that real and unreal structures, using holograms of world-famous water features, could be coupled with a son-et-lumiere extravaganza and easily employed.

With effective programming the shows will coincide with maximum audience profiles and need not be expensive.

Bob Lee, Wrose Road, Shipley.

SIR - There is much to praise in the Bradford masterplan, not least the connecting of the city centre by removing traffic from Hall Ings and Princes Way. However, implementation is a long-term project.

Meanwhile a number of initiatives could be taken which need not cost millions and would improve the city centre.

Shops could be encouraged to keep window display lighting on during the late evening, which would improve perceptions of safety. The proposed lake will need a lot of maintenance to keep it free of debris - perhaps the Council could practise on the water feature outside the magistrates' court.

The JC Decaux advertising fixtures, which litter the city centre, could be replaced by trees. The feasibility could be explored of a grant scheme to help small independent retailers with rent and rates during their early years of trading to provide a better retail mix.

Existing traffic regulations could be enforced in pedestrianised areas - there appears to be enough uniformed officials in the city centre to do this. I'm sure your readers could come up with more ideas.

Paul King, Piccadilly Chambers, Upper Piccadilly.

SIR - I just had to let myself cool down before writing to you about the city centre regeneration plans and the vision for the future.

How our city leaders have the gall to present such a costly hare-brained scheme simply beats me.

Have they no common sense? I've said many times before "there's nowt like spending other folk's brass".

With a city full of crumbling schools, a depressing education system, care homes for the elderly being closed and run on a shoestring, litter, dirt, closed shops and poor services, the powers-that-be ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Just how much have they spent so far on a trendy architect?

Barry Foster, Gilstead Lane, Gilstead.

SIR - Now I have had time to reflect on the wetlands area included in the masterplan for the city centre, I can offer a measured response. The proposed Bradford bog would be just plain stupid.

Setting aside the health risks - I can see an upsurge in cholera, typhoid, bacillary dysentery, diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases - it is such a waste of space. What planet were the designers living on when they dreamt this up?

I know the pictures (T&A, October 27) were just artists' impressions but the whole thing looked cheap, tacky and flimsy. This is not a vision, it is a nightmare. The best advert for Leeds I have ever seen.

Andrew Milne, Randall Place, Heaton

SIR - The grand plans for the regeneration of Bradford are clearly exciting some interest. However, of greater concern to the long-term future of this city are the education problems that are besetting the district.

The lack of certain shops may have some effect, but the perceived lack of progress in creating inclusive and achieving schools exerts a greater toll on the minds of many families.

I am very concerned that the support and early warning is not working. Wibsey Primary got a shock in its Ofsted report and will work to turn it round, but the school was not seen as at risk in any way by SERCO and did not therefore get the chance to request assistance.

Getting the schooling agenda right is of greater benefit than a lake.

Councillor Ralph Berry (Labour, Wibsey), Leyburn Grove, Shipley.

SIR - I was the police traffic sergeant at Eccleshill station in August 1983 when concern was being expressed about the crossroads, where a young girl died after a traffic accident.

Now, 20 years on, these same concerns are being expressed. Why the delays in improving this busy junction?

Twenty years ago, Bradford Highways Department had a scheme called "The Killinghall Triangle" in which traffic was to be diverted from Killinghall Road, left on to Northcote Road towards Otley Road.

These latter two roads were to form a crossroads with traffic signals and would take much of the traffic away from Undercliffe crossroads, which was recognised as too "tight" for heavy vehicles. There were other ideas in the plan, all designed to improve road safety - what happened to them?

Traffic lights and pedestrian facilities have been installed at the crossroads of Idle Road and Otley Road yet, surely, this junction has a better safety record than both Otley Road/Northcote Road and Undercliffe lights.

How was money found for this improvement which, on the face of it, was not really required?

I do hope that something, anything, can be done at Undercliffe lights, before someone else dies.

Brian Pickford, Summerbridge Crescent, Eccleshill.

SIR - I am confident that Councillor Andrew Smith (Letters, October 28) and I will disagree on many aspects of asylum policy. Perhaps the one point we agree on is that the present government has made a pig's ear of dealing with asylum applications.

However, the Conservative government up to 1997 also performed pretty appallingly on this issue - so New Labour does not have a monopoly on incompetence in this area.

There are many myths surrounding refugees and the asylum system. The Liberal Democrats in Baildon have produced an up-to-date fact sheet on the topic, including both national and local statistics and some myth-busting.

We have advertised its availability within our ward but, now that the topic has surfaced in the T&A's letters column, I would be happy to forward it to any reader who contacts me at the address below (a stamped, addressed envelope would be appreciated).

Councillor John Cole (Liberal Democrat, Baildon), 21 Oakroyd Terrace, Baildon, Shipley BD17 7JB

SIR - The money that Paul Burrell, Princess Diana's former butler, is making from his book and newspaper story should be donated to one of Princess Diana's charities if he was so dedicated to her. Or is he just another Judas?

M Jordan, Rhodesway, Bradford.