24/03/05

Regardless of how the fire started, any resident or local dog walker will confirm stacking pallets 30ft high next to an open space was bound to end in disaster.

Where is the council, where is the MP, where is the Environment Agency and indeed where is the newspaper that allows this area of town to carry on apparently regardless of any controls?

The residents deserve better. - Gordon Mitchell, Darlington.

NORTH-EAST ASSEMBLY

AS the last man this side of Mars to support the unelected North-East Assembly, it might have been apt to print Chris Foote-Wood's letter (HAS, Mar 21) on April Fool's Day.

He uses political double-talk by way of attempting to justify something, which he proudly sits upon, and that nearly 80 per cent of folk voted against.

Members are appointed by each local council - hardly democratically elected by the public of the North-East, and hardly accountable. And allowances are afforded to members, so "volunteer" and "unpaid" are not strictly true. - Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland Conservatives.

IT APPEARS that Chris Foote-Wood's ability to bend the truth is on a par with what Beckham does with balls.

Mr Foote-Wood is opposed to all quangos except the biggest one of all: the unelected North-East Assembly.

The referendum last November was for an elected assembly. The one to which Mr Foote-Wood refers is unelected. It has no elected members. They are appointees, appointed by their local authority. These individuals were elected to serve as local authority councillors and not to speak for, or represent the region. It is therefore deceitful to say the assembly has "democratic accountability".

Perhaps Mr Foote-Wood will expand on how the assembly's generous allowance system works. I am sure that he would not wish to give the impression that assembly members fund things out of their own pocket.

In the Government's information leaflet sent to every household before the referendum, the question was asked: "What happens if there is a No vote?" The answer was clear. There will be no assembly and decisions will continue to be made by Government and quangos in the region.

I look forward to your new campaign, Mr Foote-Wood, to rid us of the biggest quango of all: the unelected, unwanted and unaccountable assembly. - Neil Herron, Sunderland.

I WOULD dearly love to know how Chris Foote-Wood worked out his statements (HAS, Mar 21). The assembly is not elected by the populous, therefore it is not accountable to them. Many requests for information on the workings of the assembly under the Freedom of Information Act have been met with a refusal. Why will its members not disclose what "expenses" they are paid? - Archi Hipkins, Blyth.

POLITICS

JUST as Gordon Brown is telling us how well the economy is doing, figures from the Office for National Statistics show that almost a million manufacturing jobs have been lost in Britain since Labour came to power.

Tony Blair's "education, education, education" pledge failed to bring results in this area. Latest league tables show this region once again lagging behind the rest of the country.

Labour can squeeze some people here in the North-East until they squeak and they would still vote Labour because it's what they've always done. I suspect, though, that those numbers are dwindling. - Liz Colverson, Billingham East Independent candidate.

ID CARDS

THE Home Office admits that ID cards are not the solution to fraud, illegal immigration or terrorism. Identity cards haven't prevented these things in other countries, and they won't here.

The point isn't a little plastic card but the giant database. Everybody will be numbered, fingerprinted and perhaps have their eyes scanned.

You and your family will be treated like criminal suspects. You'll report where you live, and when you move, or be fined. All driving, social security, tax, employment and health records will bear the number, making secret computer searches easy for multitudes of bureaucrats.

You'll be held responsible for any errors, even ones made by officials. And when the computers break down (as inevitably they will) then it could be your life on the line.

ID cards will cost us dearly. It's not just billions of pounds of taxpayers' money, not just money and time diverted from providing real services - an identity tax of at least £250 per household in the North-East - but in profound changes to the British way of life.

If identity cards still sound like a good idea, how about identity control? - Robin Ashby, NEsaysNo2ID, Newcastle.

BURGER VAN

DARLINGTON Asda store manager Barry Thompson is quick off the mark to move the burger van after three years (HAS, Mar 17). It is a pity he is not so quick to move the ignorant drivers who park in the disabled spaces and the equally ignorant so and sos who park in the parent and child spaces. The burger van seems to be an easy target. - CR Tonkin, Darlington.

HOUNDS

MARJORIE Embling's letter (HAS, Mar 16) about Venus, the little hound which sneaked off from the hunt to curl up by her fire until it was shot, reminded me of a beagle called Restless.

My first job was in an office near the kennels and Restless was in the habit of escaping. The huntsmen would ask if we could catch her and we only had to show kindness and she came to us.

Sometime later, we were told she had been shot. Restless would have made a wonderful pet and, had I known of her impending fate, I would have taken her.

My guess is there will have been many more Venuses and Restlesses over the years. At least some of us care enough to remember them. - Brenda Scragg, Bishop Auckland.

PENSIONERS

I HAVE always considered that The Northern Echo was supportive of retired people, so I was horrified to see on Page One the day after the Budget an artist's impression of a pensioner as someone bent almost double over a walking stick (Echo, Mar 17). I find this stereotypical image both demeaning and insulting. - WE Acres, Darlington.

PAULA RADCLIFFE

IN REPLY to K Hopper (HAS, Mar 18) I know many runners who would never have stopped like Paula Radcliffe did. I ran in around 500 races and, apart from once being taken off a marathon course by ambulance, I never failed to complete the course however poorly I may have felt. I never received a penny for running. I would suggest that it is money paid to players that leads to 'moral bankruptcy'. - JR Armstrong, Bishop Auckland.

URBAN CHAOS

IT'S ironic that on the same day that I noticed and admired the mural at Urban Chaos in Duke Street, Darlington, I also read that the council has ordered its removal (Echo, Mar 18).

No wonder the Tees Valley has such a problem with 'out-migration' from the younger population. If I was younger I wouldn't live here. - Kenny Jonas, Darlington.