SIR - Public safety at Valley Parade was cynically compromised for the sake of financial gain on Saturday. The decision to allocate the new corner stand to Manchester United supporters, without adequate consideration of the consequences, was foolhardy in the extreme.

With no segregation and a complete failure to enforce the seating policy, it is no surprise there were several nasty outbreaks of violence inside the ground.

What is the point of an all-seater stadium when Manchester United supporters are allowed to stand throughout the game, yet Bradford fans like my season-ticket holding friends are threatened with ejection for briefly standing to see what was going on?

It was this inconsistency that antagonised many and fuelled the provocative atmosphere.

Of course when it boiled over, as any supporter could have predicted it would during the game, the officials were hard-pushed to control the situation.

The opposing supporters were simply too close together and it was naive in the extreme to believe that it wouldn't happen. At times it got quite ugly and I saw several family groups leave early.

At least City won't have this problem when Stockport and Wimbledon visit next season...

Andrew Milne, Randall Place, Heaton.

SIR - Since both the New Year celebrations and calls to remember the 200th year of the so-called "Union!" of Great Britain were total washouts, let's start celebrating something truly worthy: England's national St George's Day, which is also Shakespeare's birthday.

I remind local MPs and councillors that there will be a parade by local youth organisations in honour of our national day.

Perhaps they could try and make it this year? Or will they be suffering hangovers from St Patrick's Day?

We'll see, eh.

Eric Firth, Wellington Street, Wilsden.

SIR - In reply to the anonymous spokesman from the refuse department, I would like to make a couple of observations.

Firstly, if 80 per cent of the households in Bradford had their bins emptied, this leaves a massive 20- per cent who didn't, which is wholly unacceptable.

This was the fourth time in as many months that the bins on Alexandra Road had been uncollected. I can understand a one-off situation due to inclement weather; except that I've seen far worse weather than that experienced last Christmas. What I cannot accept is repeatedly being let down.

I infer from the reply that if the bins are not emptied, householders will have to wait until the following week, because to change a rotation system would confuse householders.

I accept that if the normal collection day is Friday, it should remain so. However, if the collection is not made, there should be contingency plans laid down so that the bins would be emptied by a flying squad of refuse collectors, who would repair the situation.

To do nothing is to totally abuse a monopolistic situation and to provide a less than decent service.

Ian Parsons, Alexandra Road, Eccleshill.

SIR - That some local residents should be tipping their household rubbish at a nearby school is not surprising in these days of selfish and loutish behaviour. It is another sign of the state of today's society ("Locals using my school as a dump," T&A January 9).

It is, however, just as appalling that a local authority school should have to pay out of their meagre funds for its removal by another Council agency.

This seems to be a different sort of malaise besetting the country. Everything must be done with only the financial cost as the ultimate criteria.

Surely one public service department could be called on to help another one without the accountants poking their noses in? At the end of the day, it's public money, so what's the problem?

It's pathetic that a school has to pay £100 (oh yes, plus VAT!) to shift rubbish that it has absolutely nothing to do with.

It seems to me there are a surfeit of little red and white pick-up vehicles running round the streets with a few bags of rubbish in the back. Surely one of these could have been directed to the school at no cost.

C E Clark, Undercliffe Old Road, Bradford 2.

SIR - "Don't take our beat bobbies" was the message in your headline on January 9. What beat bobbies?

In the area of Thorpe Edge we are lucky to see a police car.

The villains know they will be unlucky if they are seen by an officer - in or out of a car.

The police divisions get smaller. The promotions and wages get larger. Crime figures (and don't try and kid anyone with "statistic proof") go up and up.

People are so fed up of ringing and reporting to no avail that they stop doing either.

More police and at least 50 per cent of them on foot are the answer. Prevention is better than cure.

H Hawkesworth, Stonegate Road, Bradford

SIR - Fox-hunting is the only "sport" which has to justify itself in terms of its allegedly beneficial conservation.

If footballers and cricketers felt the same, we would be treated to lectures on their love of leather, the wonders of willow and the growing of grass.

To pretend, as does Mr Hickling (T&A, January 9), that the fate of fox-hunting is connected with the quality of life in the countryside, is rubbish.

I grew up in the Weald of Kent when the county was still the Garden of England. We saw the Evidge Hunt once a year at a local pub.

Having downed their drinks, they galloped about a bit then put their horses back in their trailers and drove home. The effect on the local economy was nil.

On the other 364 days of the year, farmers and smallholders dealt with foxes as they do in 90 per cent of cases now.

They used their 12-bore shotguns without detriment to "England's green and pleasant land".

Brian Holmans, Langley Road, Bingley.

SIR - Re Mr Hickling's letter regarding the fox population (T&A, January 9) and his reference to Sid Brown's comments about helping the fox to survive.

I think Sid is against all blood sports, not just foxes but hares and stags, etc. Nobody has the right to chase an animal with animals to the point of exhaustion, then kill it by ripping it apart! These people are cowards of the lowest kind!

The "hunting with dogs" law has to be passed now to stop this killing of innocents. It may upset a few people but it will please millions of others and that is what true democracy is all about.

Also they keep telling us that foxes (because they have no commercial value) are vermin, but they actually breed them to kill them. The media has graphically proved this recently.

Derek Wright, Westbury Street, Bradford 4.