15/04/05

She has a son at primary school and pays £8 per week for his dinners. She is under the possibly mistaken impression that all the cash she pays every week is used for her son's dinners.

I suspect she is wrong as I have heard only a proportion of her weekly outlay goes to provide the child's dinner and the cost goes into a kitty to pay for other things - like possibly paying the wages of the dinner ladies.

Can someone please inform your readers what the actual situation is?

In my view, she would be better off making a packed lunch for her child every day and this will guarantee getting full value for money.

I think all parents should know exactly where their cash goes. - Peter Johnson, Darlington.

FRIENDLY FOLK

I HAVE been to Greece for holidays for the past 20 years (HAS, Apr 8).

I find the Greeks friendly, hospitable, generous and, above all, honest.

My brother-in-law was often ignored in the bars because they thought he was German.

However, he took this as a joke and when they realised he was English, everything was OK. - I Dunn, Crook.

WASTE PERMITS

DURHAM County Council's permit system for commercial type vehicles requiring access to our household waste recycling centres has attracted publicity.

The facts relating to this scheme are quite clear, as are the reasons for it. The permit scheme seeks to weed out traders wishing to avoid paying commercial waste disposal costs from genuine householders using vans, trailers and pick-ups to get rid of purely domestic waste.

Prior to its introduction, the illegal deposit of waste in these centres was increasing significantly. Far from involving "a small number of tradesmen" as Mr A Clarke states in his letter (HAS, Apr 8), illegal deposits accounted for more than 15 per cent of all waste taken to the sites and the figure was set to rise even further.

Left unchecked, the illegal deposit of waste from commercial sources would have cost the council tax payer £1m this year alone, or about £4 for every household.

The permit scheme has saved around £250,000 of that amount since its introduction last December.

Anyone who does require a permit can easily obtain one, free of charge, by applying to the county council by post or on-line. - Chris Tunstall, Deputy Chief Executive, Durham County Council.

EURO MANAGERS

WHILE I can agree with some elements of Mr Wellthorpe's letter (HAS Apr 7) - David Hodgson is a star manager, of course - I am afraid I cannot condone the majority of his views which are based on nothing but insular racism and do nothing to enhance European sporting entente cordiale.

I hope anyone not from the North-East does not think we all harbour such views.

He must remember that Mourinho is an individual and other non-English managers should not be held to account or chastised for his actions.

Don't forget Mr Wellthorpe, you are European and they are your fellow citizens, not, as you state, foreign. - S Hawkens, Stockton.

COT DEATHS

THE release of Donna Anthony (Echo, Apr 12), convicted in 1998 of killing her two babies, must draw attention once again to the basic flaw of charging cot death mothers with murder.

Murder still carries a mandatory life sentence, whereas infanticide does not.

To quote the Institute of Mental Health Practitioners website: "The main purpose of the Infanticide Act 1938 superceding the 1922 Act is to allow the mandatory life sentence that must be applied in cases of murder to be avoided and to allow the judge full discretion in passing sentence (as can be done in cases of diminished responsibility)."

It continues: "If a woman is charged and found guilty (of causing the death of her own child or children under 12 months of age) the courts are prepared to deal with the case leniently. Most get hospital orders or are given probation or supervision orders."

Sadly, recent procedure has been to charge the mother with infanticide and persuade her to plead guilty on the grounds that there will be a shorter trial and a consultant psychiatrist will give evidence that she was suffering from post-natal depression. Failing this, maybe because she holds some other person responsible, she will be charged with murder.

Hopefully the recommendations of the Kennedy Report, "Sudden unexpected death in infants" will lead to more sympathetic investigations of these deaths. - Janet Murrell, Durham City.

RURAL BOBBIES

RECENTLY, police were treating a death as suspicious. For days the Catterick and Richmond areas were flooded with dozens of uniformed police officers, police cars, detectives by the score and a helicopter.

In view of the distinct lack of bobbies on the beat in all rural areas of North Yorkshire, I wonder where all this police personnel came from.

Do they hang about at some central location waiting for a major incident to happen, or are they diverted from area to area, as part of some special squad, as and when needed?

Surely these are the men who used to police the villages and small towns of the area, who are now too busy to attend local scenes of crime.

Perhaps the chief constable can explain? - Name and address supplied.

LIFE OR DEATH

I READ two stories recently about a man who was charged with murder for killing his brain damaged son, which he called a "mercy killing", and also about a woman whose feeding tube had been removed by doctors at a hospital, because they thought she "had no chance of living a normal life".

Which of these two cases do you think is right?

Is there something wrong with the law if doctors have the right to kill someone without the consent of the relatives, and yet the relatives of the patient do not have the same rights as the doctors if they too believe their relative has no chance of a normal life? - MA Greenhalgh, Darlington.

GOOD SHOW

EACH day in the UK five families are told their child has cancer or leukaemia. From that moment on their lives will never be the same again.

I want your readers to celebrate the fantastic work of the UK's leading children's cancer charity, CLIC Sargent, and join me on April 21 at a fabulous evening to enjoy the musical adaptation of one of the most successful British films of the last 20 years, Billy Elliot, The Musical, at the Victoria Palace, London.

Readers can buy tickets by ringing the box office on 020 7257 8085, with prices ranging from £22.50 to £55. Alternatively, exclusive gala tickets costing £125 (which includes entrance to the after-show party) are available from CLIC Sargent on 020 8752 2883. - Laurence Llewellyn Bowen.