What is left for councillors to do?

SIR - I remember the time when Bradford city was a proud centre of industry.

It was run by a City Council which was responsible with the Corporation for the production and supply of electricity and gas, for reservoirs and supply of water, for roads and footpaths, public works, baths, libraries, parks, cemeteries, police, fire brigade, schools and education. You name it, they ran it.

The public utilities were nationalised and then were flogged off by the Thatcher crowd since when it would seem the Council have either abdicated from or passed on to private management companies most of their other responsibilities.

Now comes the fiasco of finding a company to take over the management of Bradford's remaining public assets.

What exactly do councillors do these days? Do we actually need them to go on wasting public money? Have they finally done themselves out of a job?

Might not a regional administration be more responsible?

K Woodcock, Mostyn Grove, Wibsey.

Red for danger!

SIR - Quite some years ago I recall a well-orchestrated publicity campaign which sought to curtail the increasing tendency for motorists to drive through traffic lights on amber.

"Don't be an amber gambler" was the catchphrase used to promote the campaign.

Today, the danger from irresponsible motorists has notched up a tier whereby the indifference of blatantly driving through red is a regular and common feature on our roads.

I strongly urge the authorities to take sweeping action to eradicate the "Red Peril" from our highways!

Jerry Gumeniuk, Rosse Field Park, Bradford.

Speed defended

SIR - Four "speeding motorist" reports (T&A, October 20) had "safety" partnerships clamouring for the installation of even more cameras.

Speed doesn't kill, inappropriate speed does. Crashes at the "most dangerous sites in Yorkshire" mostly happened at rush hour, when speeds are virtually zero.

Claiming a "significant reduction in speed" is not the same as proving a reduction in casualties. Areas with the most cameras have the largest increase in accidents.

Speed Watch claims speeding is a contributory factor to many road accidents, but that isn't supported by Home Office statistics which show inattention is the largest single cause (drivers watching their speedos and not the road?).

Safety Partnerships and the posters on the back of buses suggest that four people are killed at every camera site. Were there really 16 deaths on St Enoch's Road?

Speed cameras don't detect drunk or stupid drivers but do alienate the police.

They are a stealth tax on honest, legally-insured and taxed drivers and have failed to reduce "casualties" at all.

Their supporters have a vested interest in promoting speeding as the latest, greatest evil, since it justifies the cameras' existence. More objectivity, please.

Martin Webster, Mount View Court,

Cleckheaton.

Parents' dilemma

SIR - With reference to your article 'Mums-to-be will get Down's screening' (T&A, October 18), surely it is the job of the professionals to help parents make 'informed' choices.

Your report did not highlight the fact that people with learning disabilities can lead very positive lives and make a valuable contribution to our society.

How can parents make an informed choice if all the talk is of 'difficulty', 'risk' and 'abnormality'?

Tim Wheeler, Queens Road, Bradford.

Pensions facts

SIR - If Mr Tasker chooses to use pensioners to make his political points (Letters, October 20) then he should get his facts correct. The basic State pension with a full contribution record is £82.05 or £131.20 for couples. The figures of £109 and £167 quoted by Mr Tasker are the maximum amounts receivable if pensioners apply for the means-tested Pension Credit. There is no £40 on top as stated by Mr Tasker.

Putting these figures into perspective means a total increase from £67 to £82 of £15 per week over eight years of the current Government, an average of less than £2 per year and well below the rate of inflation.

As for promises, can I draw his attention to those made by the Government prior to their election in 1997 that "pensioners would receive a fair share of the national prosperity, without means-testing and the link with earnings will be restored".

We are still waiting and around 50 per cent of the pensioner population are on means-tested benefits.

Finally, I should point out that the National Pensioners Convention is a non-party political organisation campaigning for a better deal for all pensioners.

Peter Meer (chairman Yorkshire & Humber Pensioners Convention), Bramham Road, Bingley.

Why talk stork?

SIR - While passing through your city recently (to attend the international conference on the growth of the village in early modern China and its relevance to 20th century Bognor Regis) I happened to notice a poster promoting the regeneration of Bradford depicting storks delivering city "babies" from their beaks accompanied by the line "The Birth of a City".

This suggestion that an urban environment springs fully formed from the beak of innocent waterfowl is a dangerous misconception.

This is clearly NOT how a city is born. In her pioneering work, the Geography GCSE Passbook, Vivien Perry clearly notes the five primary causes of the birth of towns as follows:1 Markets; 2 Historical Factors; 3 Communications; 4 Industry; 5 Resorts of Demand

Nowhere in Perry's work can there be found evidence of involvement of storks in the process of a city's birth. Is this really what we should be teaching the younger generation?

I have experienced these dangers myself as a former student of mine at Wolverhampton, after a similar campaign in that area, believed the city to have grown from a lump of coal.

I am all for the questioning of accepted orthodoxies, one of the crucial developments in human intellectual society, but the abandoning of established views in favour of wild theorising can only be a dangerous example and will lead to the intellectual corruption of the younger generation.

Gerald Winstanley-Stanley, Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Hull Campus, Lincoln.

Help needed now

SIR - I'd like to alert your readers to the small window of opportunity available to us, the British public, to help survivors of the Asia Earthquake before winter sets in.

Many roads have been blocked since the quake, and the ongoing relief operation is battling the elements to get aid to the most vulnerable people.

This will get much worse in three to five weeks' time when winter closes in. Mountain tops are already covered with snow and helicopters will only be able to fly to remote areas over the next few weeks.

Our nation has been incredibly generous already, with more than £15m donated to the 13 major aid agencies which make up the Disasters Emergency Committee. Shelter, clean water, blankets and medical care are reaching the people who need them. But the DEC urgently needs more funds before winter sets in.

A donation of £15 can buy seven blankets; £42 can buy a family survival kit helping for at least 20 days; and £90 can buy a family tent specially designed for winter.

Please join me in supporting the DEC's Asia Quake Appeal.

Shobna Gulati (Sunita in Coronation Street)on behalf of the Disasters Emergency Committee Asia Quake Appeal.

Missing mates

SIR - I am looking for two of my best mates, Douglas Lloyd and Ronnie Brown. They attended Margaret McMillan School. If anybody knows them please contact me on 0208 640 7560. Known as Billy, I lived in Bierley until 1954.

W H Skinner, Finborough Road, Tooting, London.

A bouquet for us

SIR - May I compliment the Telegraph & Argus on its Buy It In Bradford campaign and may I add that your tactful positioning of the advert for the White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds on a separate page is also to be commended.

Paul Moss, Piccadilly Corner, Bradford.