Vital funding that must not be lost

SIR - I am writing to express my disgust at Bradford Council's commissioning group's decision to turn down the bid and subsequent appeal for funding for the Beacon Enterprises Training Centre on the Buttershaw Estate.

My belief was that the Government wanted to encourage learning in the community - is this no longer the case? Around 250 people a year use the training centre, aged from 18 to 80. Many of our trainees are lone parents getting qualifications so that they can return to work. A number of our trainees will not be able to continue their training next year if their only option is to go out of the locality.

Local learning opportunities are important. To withdraw funding and so enforce closure of a centre which has been so successful for the past 20 years is disgraceful.

Perhaps the commissioning group would like to explain to the 200 trainees who have enrolled on courses since September, and the people on the waiting lists who are hoping to go on future courses, why there is no need for Beacon Enterprises Centre.

Lynn Gallagher (administrator, Beacon Enterprises), The Crescent, Buttershaw.

Drivers panicked

SIR - Although the snow and ice contributed to the problems in Bradford last Monday, the main difficulty was the behaviour of other drivers, particularly those coming up Otley Road and turning right towards Bingley at The Branch pub.

Time after time I watched cars pull into the centre of the junction, although they had no room to move any further forward, thus blocking other traffic when the lights changed.

If people were prepared to be a little more courteous and patient instead of panicking and driving selfishly, many of the gridlock problems would not have happened.

Kerry Gilchrist, Norwood Avenue, Shipley

Norway's lesson

SIR - I am disgusted with the Council's severe-weather back-up policy (assuming they have one). It took me 1 hour 35 minutes to get from the city centre to my house three miles away on Monday night.

I suggest the council sends a few members over to Norway, so they can learn how to keep the traffic flowing smoothly from a nation which has to do it for half a calendar year, every year!

Hamdan Khan, Toller Lane, Bradford 9

No gritters

SIR - On Monday in the Five Lane Ends area of Bradford, not one single gritter was seen all day until about 6.30 p.m. This was despite the weather forecast and the obvious physical presence of the stuff which fell all afternoon off and on.

On the back of the last debacle in the east of the country one would have thought it would have been incumbent on any authority to be on their mettle and perform better. Not so Bradford Council and their contractors!

Ian Jayne, Willowfield Crescent, Bradford 2

What a joke...

SIR - An 11.5 per cent increase in tax from a council who can squander a fortune on a bid to be Europe's Capital of Culture but hasn't the nous to get some grit on the roads (and has never bothered to grit the road I live on)?

This whole issue sums Bradford up - a joke that provokes no laughter.

Mitchell Thompson, Staybrite Avenue, Bingley

Apology needed

SIR - Having taken 1 hours longer than normal to complete the afternoon school run, I wonder who is going to apologise for the lethal state of the roads this time. Is it the Highway Agency or the worst council in Britain?

The priorities are all wrong. Could they lay off a few marketing supremoes at City Hall and appoint someone who can read a weather forecast?

Finally, is there any chance of removing the ludicrous "culture bid" posters, or have the sites been bought for the full year?

Mark Ashdown, Ling Park Avenue, Wilsden

Case of deja vu!

SIR - Regarding the article about asylum seekers by Mike Priestley. I had an identical experience in the same Post Office one morning and on my return to work I voiced to my colleagues exactly the same comments as Mike did in his article, from the appearance of the indigenous population in the main queue, to the long queue to the single window at the far end of the office made up of well-dressed young men.

When I read the article by Mike, I thought it had been written by myself. Congratulations on a very observant and sensible article.

S Heppleston, Illingworth Road, Oakenshaw, Bradford.