Letters to the Editor

The Dairy Council recently telephoned every Local Education Authority in England and asked about the provision of school milk. Your Bradford Local Education Authority refused to supply statistics on the provision of school milk for primary school children. We understand, from local sources, that this is because provision within the Bradford area is minimal, in spite of a EU subsidy scheme to help with the cost.

The argument about whether or not to include fluoride in school milk would therefore seem premature, when the vast majority of primary school children are not even being offered milk at school.

We would argue that the addition of fluoride to school milk is largely a matter of consumer choice. Seven health authorities in the UK currently offer the choice of whole, semi-skimmed or fluoridated milk at break-time.

As long as parents and children are offered the choice, and parents have to sign a consent form before their children receive fluoridated milk, then we consider it to be an individual parental decision.

Of more important concern is whether the children are actually receiving school milk at break-time in the first place.

Mrs Jill Eisberg, Head of Communications, The Dairy Council, John Princes Street, London W1.

SIR - My mother, who is 83, recently began suffering from sciatica. Whether it was due to a recent fall I don't know, but for the past four weeks she has been bent double in excruciating pain.

When it first happened, we asked the doctor to call. He refused and suggested pain-killers.

She has been visiting an osteopath at the cost of £87 so far, so I decided to ask Social Services for a high chair and a bath seat.

We were told that these items were no longer supplied and it was suggested that she go and buy a cheap high chair at a certain store in Bradford.

She simply cannot afford to do this on her basic pension. Just what is this Council thinking about? My mother has been too proud to claim for anything in the past.

Mrs C A Booth, Reevy Road, Wibsey.

l A Bradford Council social services spokesman said: "We do provide equipment for people with a long-term disability or need but equipment for short-term needs is down to the NHS. We recognise this can be confusing for people and the Government has decided that an integrated equipment service will be established within the next two years. However, the Bradford district is committed to achieving this sooner.

"We apologise to Mrs Booth for any confusion. She should have been advised to get in touch with the health service through her GP. If she would like to contact the occupational therapy adviser on 435252, we will discuss her mother's needs in more detail and if appropriate contact the relevant NHS therapist on her behalf."

SIR - Reading about those parrot-lovers who have recently had their pets stolen, I was quite surprised that they were so valuable and therefore a ready target for thieves.

Such being the case, I would have thought that, whether mellifluous, voluble or merely stupidly repetitive, they were not exactly the wisest choice as pets.

Sitting on a perch (permanently) and talking (occasionally) are not qualities one looks for in pets in these dangerous days. It seems that they could inflict a grievous wound if necessary (and if only they could give their captors a dose of psittacosis - a sort of parrot's revenge, if you like) but have so far remained impassive.

If one has to keep a bird, perhaps judicious cloning of the contents of a pterodactyl egg, its potential menace lying dormant for aeons in the ice-bound time-warp of a mountain fastness, could be the answer - imagine a proliferation of these vicious raptors! This would certainly deter the villains.

We would be limited to one per household, provided of course that they could be trained to distinguish between friend and foe. Otherwise it could be - come back, pretty Polly, all is forgiven!

Derek Mozley, Moorhead Terrace, Shipley.

SIR - I would like to take this opportunity to put the record straight by responding to the letter which appeared under the headline "Useless Police"(T&A, April 29).

The letter writer says that when the theft of nine Yorkshire stone flags was reported to police, the complainant was told the matter would be assigned to an officer.

The caller was said to have explained that the suspects were probably still in the area but says he was told there were no officers available to deal with the matter and it would be dealt with in due course.

The letter writer says four weeks on they are still waiting for any contact from the police.

In fact, a matter of 30 minutes after we received the initial report of the theft, the vehicle described by the caller was stopped and a man was arrested. We await the outcome of an ongoing court case.

Clearly something has gone wrong in our procedures and we have not communicated that positive result to the complainant, and for that I apologise unreservedly. I felt it important to make your readers aware of the facts to redress the balance.

Chief Supt Phil Read, Divisional Commander, Bradford North Police.

SIR - Road deaths will continue to soar if more police are not made available to deal with this "sore in society's side".

On a regular basis, I have reason to phone Police HQ at Wakefield to report speeding and "stunt driving" on Haworth Road which I can set my watch by - 3.30 in the afternoon when schools are finishing for the day.

This road is regularly used as a race track by a lot of drivers. It is not uncommon to hear and see cars speeding both up and down Haworth Road almost every day and in my view the culprits are the same people time and again.

A car actually did a "handbrake turn" not three feet from my own car not too long ago and as we go into summer with longer days, I can only dread what might happen if one of these lunatic drivers loses control in the vicinity of all the children in the street at the end of the school day.

Martin John Petty, Haworth Road, Bradford.

SIR - I would like to say how much I'm enjoying the new columns in the T&A each night written by different writers on everyday life.

But Mike Coatesworth's piece (April 25) about his pet Brandy had special meaning to me.

Two evenings earlier, my own pet Sam had died of an heart attack. He also was a rescue dog from Ivy Cottage, Tong, ten years ago.

He was a loving and much-loved pet. So my grief was unbearable un til I read Mr Coatesworth's column and got great comfort from it knowing he had coped in his own way.

So thank him from us and tell him and the other writers the new features are very enjoyable.

Mrs Irene Ford, Eskdale Rise, Allerton.

SIR - As Jenny Sampson states about the fireworks, it's time these were just for November 5 as it was intended in the first place.

The elderly get them shoved through their letterboxes, like my blind friend who had three put through on different occasions.

Guide dogs are trained to put up with noise but not to have noisy fireworks thrown at them.

So let's have one display, fully organised, like the one we had at Whitsuntide in Peel Park, and forget the rest until the next year.

D Burnett, Great Horton Road, Bradford.

SIR - The appalling state of affairs on the Allerton estate as reported and commented on in the T&A (April 25) is beyond comprehension but the residents must now be feeling very relieved that the Council are taking measures to prevent these "disfunctional" youths from terrorising people by driving and burning stolen or illegal cars in their midst.

The Council's promised action is a masterpiece of lateral thinking. They propose to make the surfaced paths narrower - less than the width of a car. Well, that should stop them!

As Baldrick would say: "A cunning plan my Lord".

Nick Caroll, Northcote Terrace, Bradford 2.