27/06/05

We live in an economic environment where, despite paying an ever increasing proportion of our earnings in taxes, we are told that public services need to be cut due to a lack of funds.

We live in a country where the police cannot find the means or the will to afford those of us who pay their wages an acceptable level of service.

We live in a world where thousands die every week due to the need of the most basic of food and medical supplies.

Despite all of this, we have within our midst a family of multi-billionaires who are, apparently without any sense of shame, prepared to plunder the public purse to the tune of £37m per year (Echo, June 23).

This same family pays nothing but a token tax on their obscene wealth and yet has the audacity to demand the additional cost of a 24-hour police security presence.

Is it possible to imagine any other group who, through their greed and selfishness, demonstrate such an utter contempt for the British people?

If, as individuals, we are to be judged by our contribution to society, our consideration for those less fortunate, our basic sense of morality, then surely the British Royal Family can only be considered to be the lowest of the low.

Will enough of the British people ever see beyond the Royalist pap spoon-fed to them by a servile media and realise the need to throw these parasites into the dustbin of history? - Mick Garbutt, Darlington.

RECYCLING

WHAT is the point of Richmondshire District Council using taxpayers' money to issue us with green boxes to recycle glass if it does not then empty the boxes?

Myself and my neighbour have filled and left the boxes in an appropriate place to be collected on the dates given by the council and, as yet, despite phone calls and a visit to the environmental office in Richmond, the boxes have still not been emptied.

I, for one, shall return to taking the glass to the local bottle bank as the council is obviously not interested in carrying out their commitment to householders as stated in the information given with the boxes.

Having limited space, it is difficult enough storing boxes without the added problem of them not being emptied.

I suggest Richmondshire Council reviews the contract in an attempt to follow Government guidelines as I am sure that I am not the only person to be disillusioned by this matter. - Eileen Yarwood, Catterick Garrison.

HOUSING

Sedgefield council has been accused of being underhanded about its method of balloting council tenants about the proposed privatisation of their houses (Echo, June 24).

It has pushed for tenants to transfer to Sedgefield Housing, but has only ever put one side of the story. It has never given the tenants the pros and cons of the transfer so that they can make an informed choice.

On June 18, I received a letter delivered by the Royal Mail from Sedgefield Council informing me a meeting of the council had taken place on June 17, and that the vote for the transfer would go ahead. The letter was dated June 18 and signed by the chief executive.

Now we all know about the improvements that have taken place within the Royal Mail recently but even it is not that good at delivering a letter unless it has been written and posted before the letter date - just one example of the methods used by Sedgefield Council to convince tenants to vote for what the council wants and not what is best for the tenants. - Peter Dolan, Newton Aycliffe.

PARKING

ON May 6 I committed the offence of parking my car in Richmond and forgetting to turn my disc to the correct time (I was late for my exercise class). I came out less than an hour later to find the traffic warden putting a ticket on my car.

He knew where I had been. When I got home I immediately wrote a cheque for £40 and a letter of explanation (the wording on the back of the ticket made me foolishly expect that it might be taken into consideration).

I was going away the next day for two weeks and the ticket threatens an increase to £60 if you delay beyond 14 days.

On my return I rang the relevant office and was told that the person who dealt with traffic fines was not available.

I rang the office again on June 16 and was breezily told that my letter had not been seen and that the cheque had been presented on May 9. As I had asked for a receipt I was surprised when the first thing I knew about the cashed cheque was when it appeared on my bank statement on June 15.

This is arrogant behaviour.

Recently, your paper said Hambleton District Council was about to get tough with people who cheated by changing their parking discs - fines of £30 could be expected. There is no comparison in the offences. - P Carter, Richmond.

PAPER

RESEARCH shows that businesses in the North-East are "unnecessarily throwing away" £1.5bn worth of paper (Echo Business, June 23).

The report states: "If all the waste paper binned in the North-East were joined together it would stretch from Middlesbrough to Moscow." Now that could win an international job creation award.

Anyway, since most of the paper would contain the details of the mass of Government regulations that impact on the business community, it is indeed tempting for business people to throw most of it away. However, in order to avoid prosecution from any one of the many Government enforcers, it is vital, in fact necessary, to read and comply with the regulations before disposal.

Perhaps The Northern Echo could lead the way in newspaper waste reduction. A scheme by which readers could return their read newspaper to newsagents in part exchange for the current day's edition could both stimulate repeat sales and encourage recycling.

Alternatively, why not encourage readers to view the paper free on a website accessible even in Moscow? - Peter Troy (by paper-free Internet), Sedgefield.

ENGLISH FLAG

K YOUNG of Darlington (HAS, June 19) obviously feels the same way I do about the Tour of Britain cycle race in which the English flag will be missing but those of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will be worn by athletes representing those countries.

Readers may be interested and shocked to know that Sport England, one of the sponsors of this race, said: "Sport England does not believe that supporting an English team would be an appropriate use of public funds... The GB team will not be renamed as English because this would leave us with no official national team."

So we have Scotland, Ireland and Wales teams, but the English team has to represent these countries as well. England is apparently not a nation and not worthy of (our) English taxes.

You can find a list of sponsors on the Tour's website, who are all aware of this discrimination, but find no problem supporting it. - Della Petch, Driffield, East Yorkshire.