Letters to the Editor

SIR - With regard to Sheila Ognissanti's letter (T&A, October 1) about the Teachers' Television programme featuring Carlton Bolling College, I wonder how she could be so confused as to say 'Bradford was once again in the news for all the wrong reasons.'

To pick one shot (incidentally, where a Deputy Head was setting an excellent example in carrying out the school policy of encouraging students to have high standards of punctuality) from a 30-minute programme and jump to the conclusion we should employ 'nightclub bouncers' shows stunning lack of insight.

For the benefit of anyone who read the letter but missed the programme, the story is one Bradford should be proud of.

This year, GCSE 5+ A*-C exam results of Carlton-Bolling College have risen from 19 per cent to 33 per cent. In their recent report, Her Majesty's Inspectors praised the standards of behaviour, attendance and punctuality of students.

The impressive transformation which has happened over the last two years is in no small part due to the fine example of Deputy Heads acting as role models and setting our students on the path to success in the classroom and all other walks of life.

N Jepson, Headteacher, Carlton Bolling College.

A cunning plan

SIR - Regarding the letter from Gordon Steff (T&A, September 28) who witnessed a vehicle offence in Shipley town centre which was ignored by a police officer, unfortunately this is part of the 'cunning police policy' to reduce crime.

The very last thing the police authorities want is an officer reporting offences - that is the duty of the public. If every police officer got it into his head that he should do this, crime would treble overnight and the Government would collapse.

However, Mr Steff, you had the extra misfortune to speak with this officer, whose Inspector Clouseau-like observations left you obviously dismayed and angry.

I don't want to make you feel worse, but the bottom line is that this experience, or offence, will not go on any statistics.

Let's start our own statistics by asking anyone to challenge that 'unreported crime' is up 500 per cent in the last year!

Gary Lorriman, North Walk, Harden.

Never too old...

SIR - In a recent article Dr Tom Smith suggested that we should all beware of becoming older parents because of, among other things, the inability to join in with our children as we get older.

Well, I have to tell him that as a 60-year-old parent with two children of 21 and 24, it has never been a problem.

All that has happened is that where I once led the family up mountains in the Lake District and Yorkshire dales, now I follow. It's not a problem; indeed I rather enjoy seeing them in the lead.

Not only that but on my 60th birthday I agreed to compete in a triathlon (750m swim, 15km bike ride and 5km run) with my son. I am now in training, never having done a triathlon before.

As they say, you are never too old to do something new. Power to older parents!

John Stead, Rooley Avenue, Odsal.

Such busy bees

SIR - With summer's passing, the wondrous sight of busy bees going about their tasks with the flowers is just a delightful memory.

Yet over the last week after experiencing the sterling work done at the BRI accident & emergency and subsequently in ward 18 where my mum has been staying, the work of these impressive human busy bees will be with us always as a memory.

What a change such worthwhile members of our community make with the likes of that automatic brat who was expelled from a posh public school as well as the lacklustre politicians and their bouncers who, in contrast, seem like drone bees or perhaps bee drones!

Sid Brown, Glenhurst Road, Shipley.

Hockney rubbish

SIR - What rubbish Bradford artist David Hockney is talking on the banning of smoking in public places like pubs and restaurants.

Most people who use pubs and restaurants are non-smokers and like to socialise in smoke-free areas. When it comes to eating food in these places there should be no smoking. I for one who am a non-smoker don't like going into the pub with clean clothes and coming back home smelling of smoke.

Pubs used to have snugs and tap rooms for smokers, but not any more. Open-plan pubs mean smokers and non-smokers share the same space and same air which is wrong.

Most non-smokers don't want to breathe the same air as smokers. It's not political correctness gone wrong, but standing up for the rights of others.

Smokers have had it their own way for far too long. Perhaps they should listen to what other people have to say for a change.

Martin Palliser, Waincliffe House, Laisterdyke.

Eyesight ruined

SIR - David Hockney was on TV last week protesting about the ban on smoking in pubs and eating places.

He should have been in my place last weekend - I was so ill because I had the misfortune to sit near heavy smokers at a funeral wake.

I have no immunity against smoke having worked in the thick of it when there was no air conditioning, and it has ruined my eyesight. I now have macular disease.

David Hockney has fallen off the pedestal I have always kept him on, and I will never let him climb back on until he tells the world he has stopped smoking.

Veronica Farnell, Market Street, Thornton.

Reasons not to...

SIR - Re the letter 'Honest couple' (T&A, September 30), the moral to the following story is "if you lose your purse in Morrisons" do it in Bradford not Keighley.

On a visit to Keighley I went to pay for my shopping - no purse, total panic!

A young lady searched through the shopping but no purse. "What you need love is the police. Do you still want this lot?" she asked. My husband paid for the goods and we left.

After visits to the bank to cancel cards, the police to report the loss, losing my husband in the panic, I found the purse at home.

Red face and apologies to the bank and police but not to Morrisons.

Unless things have changed recently I think more rehearsals are needed at Keighley.

Mrs J Briggs, Cliffe Avenue, Harden.

Garden loos?

SIR - I write in response to Mrs B Moore (T&A, September 29) regarding her reply to Mr B Foster (T&A, September 23).

Not all people are dog lovers but I accept many are. Yes dogs do need exercise but why do owners not set a part of their own garden aside for a dog toilet and train them to use it before taking them on their walk, as guide dogs are trained?

Surely the walk would be more pleasant without having to collect bags of dog poo?

With regard to litter I do not have a solution. We all have a responsibility to take our rubbish home and do not feel it up to those who care about our environment to clean up after those who do not.

Mavis Khan, Nightingale Walk, Gilstead, Bingley.

Ghettos galore

SIR - What planet is CRE chairman Trevor Phillips living on? Or has he been asleep for the past 25 years?

In that time, the country has become riddled with the kind of ghettos of which he warns.

The silent majority probably feel as I do: that the instigators of mass immigration have a lot to answer for.

J R Renshaw, Currer Street, Bradford.