Letters to the Editor

SIR - Here we go again, Bradford Council wants to spend £440 million to bring in from Europe a company to manage the district's waste for the next 25 years (T&A, October 18).

Why? We have a university pouring out a constant supply of excellent brain power so why go abroad? Also, how can a private contractor do it cheaper and more efficiently than our own council executives?

Then there is the asset management "debacle" (T&A, October 19). What are these people in City Hall doing spending £2-3 million trying to pass the mess to a private contractor?

This project is worth more than one thousand million pounds. No wonder the Council wants to pass it on. It's obvious it's a disaster caused by management errors in the past.

The reason they are having difficulty with it is because there are too many question marks in the validity of ownership of various commodities.

It is getting very difficult for the electorate to understand why the Council is failing in all its endeavours to run the city efficiently.

Derek Wright, Westbury Street, Bradford.

Apology is due

SIR - Now that Trevor Phillips, head of the Commission for Racial Equality, has made a seismic u-turn on his beliefs on multiculturalism I believe that Ray Honeyford should be given a very public civic apology and his 20 years lost pension rights.

More than two decades ago I followed the reports in the Telegraph & Argus about the hounding of Mr Honeyford. What he was saying then is what Trevor Phillips is saying today.

This very experienced former Bradford headmaster was sacked because of his views on multiculturalism.

He believed his pupils should be fully equipped to participate in British society, and should therefore learn English before school entry and our national history during schooling.

The local education authority at that time thought that every racial group should be encouraged to cling to its own separate cultural identity. And we have all seen the result of this myopic view.

So come on Bradford, eat humble pie and award Ray Honeyford what is rightly his - civic recognition and full pension rights.

Mrs Margaret Harrison, Carr Street, Birstall.

Who knows best?

SIR - I wonder what on earth people who are considering moving to Bradford - either to live, work, or to set up some kind of business - think of Malcolm Wood's letter (T&A, October 10).

He refers to plans to build an ornamental lake, surrounded by park-land in the city centre, with the words "Will Alsop's ego trip" and "Lake Ludicrous" and its "rubbish-infested glory".

People planning to come to Bradford can be forgiven for going somewhere else.

"Imagine a city full of ignorant vandals and a council that can't cope with it," they'll say.

"I'll tell you what," one will say to another, "Let's go and live in Northowram.

"Some people there seem to know more about Bradford than the people who are elected to run its affairs."

Jack Mawson, Grove House Crescent, Bradford.

Don't let evil in

SIR - "Hurray for Halloween" reads a double page headline in the T&A of October 20. As this season again approaches, with its familiar trappings of witches outfits, grotesque masks, tridents and the like I admit to a kind of sinking feeling. No doubt Halloween is big business in the retail world and marketed as "innocent fun". To sound a note of warning is to be branded a killjoy or a stick in the mud.

However, it ought to be pointed out that Halloween activities have a real link with the presence of evil, the effects of which we see all around us. Real witches and Satanists do exist, concentrating on the dark side of humanity, the occult, and the devil.

So, let's be aware that Halloween, far from being just "fun", can open a door to the power of evil, and bring exposure to influences which are harmful to the minds of all, especially the young.

Let's rather promote light, and the good things in the world, instead of links with the kingdom of evil.

Geoff Stead, Effingham Road, Harden.

A brave lady

SIR - Regarding the letters of Geoff Tasker and Peter Wilson (T&A, October 18), let us get the issue of this elderly lady not paying part of her council tax into perspective.

The lady went to jail for not paying a small proportion of the council tax. She was trying to make a 'big point' to the Government that the council tax should not rise more than inflation.

She did, in fact, pay council tax plus inflation but refused to pay the last £50 which was above inflation. Laws are made to be broken when unjust. The lady in question was brave and made her point.

People who refuse to pay any council tax are a completely different dispute.

I presume, year after year the same offenders never pay this tax and are not jailed, but they still want their bins emptying, roads cleaned, snow cleared, rubbish removed from the streets, their children educated.

Do any of these people go to jail?

Sandra Allatt, West Lane, Baildon.

Licence defunct

SIR - Mrs Soothill (Letters, October 19) and Mr Shipman (October 21) are correct to voice concern, and suggest alternative means of funding the BBC, Mrs Soothill's idea (to have it abolished) being the correct one. There is no reason for the TV licence in this day and age.

T Hill, Harbour Crescent, Bradford 6.

Delay a disgrace

SIR - In addition to Gerry Sutcliffe MP highlighting the need to re-open Low Moor Station (T&A, October 20), it is important Bradford Council also makes representations for the necessary funding.

It is disgraceful the station has not yet been built when preparatory work was to have commenced in February 2004, and that was after other delays.

Low Moor is an important station as it allows access to the rail network from the south of the city, and would strengthen the case to re-open the Spen Valley Line.

The ironic situation is that while rail lines are being reopened in Wales and Scotland, enabled by the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament, it is feared the Government may attempt to close certain branch lines in England and withdraw lightly used services.

A further irony is that further rail enhancements will be made in London for the Olympics while the regions will be woefully neglected.

An efficient rail system requires enhancements throughout the network, if rising passenger numbers are to be accommodated. We face a paradoxical situation of line closures against the background of increasing demands for rail services.

Alec Suchi, Bradford Rail Users' Group, Allerton Road, Bradford

Jury out over MP

SIR - If Helen O'Neill (T&A, October 20) interpreted my letter as "singing the praises" of Philip Davies, then either she failed in her reading or I failed in my writing.

I actually suggested he may eventually achieve the status of a man of genuine integrity in Parliament, but that must remain a distant aspiration until we know him better.

Was it significant that the two prime models I nominated were traditional 'Old Labour' MPs? I also predicted it would be a bumpy ride - although I had not anticipated just how bumpy, or how soon!

The squabbling allegation has done no-one any favours and I am sure his predecessor would never have been tempted to grapple with a fellow member in public.

Phil Davies is clearly still a novice in public life and the ways of Westminster, but Shipley's electors have given him a term to develop and prove he can represent all these people with his claimed straight-talking integrity.

As I wrote in May, immediately after his election, "...let us down and the astute voice of Shipley will again use its black cross to deliver the black-cap verdict".

The jury's out.

Graham Hoyle, Kirkbourne Grove, Baildon

Show your colours

SIR - Now that we know England will be the only home country in next year's World Cup Finals, will this cause a problem for Bradford Council's political correct brigade as it did in the European Championships last year?

It took the T&A, plus Bradford taxi drivers, to give them a good kicking, before they abandoned their unpatriotic position of offending everybody and pleasing nobody.

Let us know your position now!

Gary Lorriman, North Walk, Harden