Hear All Sides

T KELLY (HAS, Mar 22) says: "There is no place for the travelling way of life in the 21st century".

May I remind him that there is no place for racism, bigotry and facism in the 21st century.

Travellers have the same claim on local services as other non-rate-paying members of our society. Why is it more socially acceptable to berate travelling folk than it is to talk about an unemployed person who doesn't pay taxes?

Granted, there is a minority of gipsies who make a mess, but our country is also full of filthy housing estates that are home to a whole host of undesirables who have never worked a day in their lives.

Who are we to stop gipsies living the way they want to?

If they want to buy their own land and do what they want with it, then fair play to them. There are plenty of "law-abiding" citizens who insist on erecting monstrous conservatories that quite frankly are more ugly than the sight of a few caravans in a field. But we would never bleat on about these members of society as they have the right to do what they want on their property (and don't even need planning permission).

Heaven help us if we become a nation of right-wing Tories. Whatever happened to this being a free country? - Melissa Wilson, Darlington.

STOCKTON HERITAGE

WHAT would you think of a council which turned down a guaranteed £90,000 and tourists? Absurd?

Stockton council did this when it turned down the potential of the £11m Locomotion museum now located at Shildon. The numbers visiting the museum have surpassed all expectations and with the knock-on effect to the town from the tourists the future looks very good.

Compare this with Stockton, which has buried part of the original trackbed of the Stockton and Darlington Railway under the tarmac of the new link road from Ingleby Barwick. This was a decision taken in the early 1970s by councillors showing total contempt for our heritage.

Let's not forget John Walker, inventor of the friction match, and Thomas Sheraton, the famous furniture maker, and you are looking at a potential 150,000 to 200,000 tourists. But what have we got to show for it? Nothing.

After many years of correspondence with the council regarding our heritage, I have come to the conclusion that the council has no interest in the above. So why do we have a tourist department? - Mike Wilson, Stockton.

KILLER

WHAT sort of country do we live in when George Leigers, having killed twice, may have the chance to walk free (Echo, Mar 18)?

If you kill you should receive life, if it was not in any form of self defence.

Leigers wrote in his personal organiser: "killed again... should have taken my medication."

He should stay locked up. - J Reid, Newton Aycliffe.

TELEVISION

WE HEAR of another murder or some other kind of brutality on TV nearly every day. Children are brought up watching TV and tapes, and they will grow up believing that that kind of behaviour is acceptable.

The sooner the TV presenters find some other kind of programmes the better.

Can we have some nice musicals and old plays, even if they are repeats of those shown years ago? - J Metcalfe, Darlington.

NORTH-EAST ASSEMBLY

The notion put forward by Chris Foote-Wood (HAS, Mar 21) that the current unelected North-East Assembly is in fact elected and accountable stretches fantasy to the limit.

As a ratepayer in Berwick, I have no recollection of being asked to vote for this body.

The current assembly has no mandate whatsoever from the public who finance it through the allocation of their council tax.

Our MP Alan Beith recently went cap in hand to get the new housing allocation for Berwick altered from figures arbitrarily handed out by the assembly - hardly indicative of local, open and democratic debate. - Jim Waugh, Berwick-Upon-Tweed.

THE Conservatives are the only party to have proposed to completely abolish England's Regional Assemblies.

Chris Foote-Wood (HAS, Mar 21) will also be pleased to acknowledge that the party has listed a full range of quangos that will be culled, and their responsibilities returned to local authorities.

Recently, Conservative councillors were narrowly beaten in bringing the South-East assembly to its knees: a 75 per cent vote was needed to get abolition and they achieved 70.7 per cent. Lib Dems and Labour blocked the plan.

When 697,000 North-East people speak up against a specific proposal, is it not time politicians like Mr Foote-Wood to accept that "real" democracy has spoken.

If the members of the assembly wish to carry on attending meetings against the wishes of the people, then until such time as common sense prevails and abolition begins, maybe they should do so without expenses from public funds. - Councillor Richard Bell, Conservative candidate for Bishop Auckland.

CHRIS Foote-Wood (HAS, Mar 21) is upset by the proliferation of unelected quangos, yet continues to preside over the LibDem group in the unelected North-East Assembly.

Who gave him permission to operate at regional level, and who will hold him to account there? Certainly not the "regional" electorate.

He is democratically accountable only as a councillor, serving a specific, limited area of the North-East.

And what's this about the assembly being "unpaid"? Do its "representatives" - 30 per cent of them appointed from favoured special-interest groups - really receive nothing by way of attendance allowances or expenses?

The message before the referendum was: "You've already got an unelected assembly, now we're generously giving you the chance to make it democratic." But we refused to play ball.

The Government should accept our decision, and dismantle all the unwanted quangos - including the unelected assembly.

Then, maybe, it will be possible to reform genuine local government, preferably on non-party-political lines. - Gillian Swanson, Whitley Bay.

THE NHS

WITH millions of people being treated each year by the NHS, it is inevitable things sometimes go wrong.

But myself and my wife have, between us, had half a dozen operations at Darlington Memorial Hospital. All successful. Wonderful surgeons, caring nurses - all testament to a service not always appreciated by the British public, especially Tories who do not really believe in a free NHS.

Having lived in the US for several years, it makes me angry to hear unwarranted criticism of our wonderful service.

There will never ever be enough money for the NHS - it is a bottomless pit of demand and improved medical technology.

This Government has done a creditable job in running the NHS and I for one will never trust the NHS to the Tories.

Despite the Iraq war and some minor inconsistencies, Tony Blair and his excellent Chancellor deserve to be re-elected. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.