29/01/05

These paltry payments to our senior citizens put us at the bottom of European spending on public pensions.

I recently wrote to the Liberal Democrat pensions spokesman Steve Webb MP about a fair state basic pension for all people over retiring age. I pointed out that I was concerned about means testing forms. Why should pensioners have to fill in forms and be asked personal questions for pension credits when a decent state pension should be theirs by right?

The cost of administration would be better going towards the provision of a decent basic pension to match those received by our counterparts in Europe.

Many local pensioners are also hit by high council taxes. The Government should consider giving all pensioners a council tax discount until Parliamentary time is given to replace the unpopular council tax with a local income tax based on a person's ability to pay, which would benefit our pensioners.

I also wrote to Andrew Stunell MP voicing my concerns about the high levels of gas and electricity price increases and the effect they will have on the elderly. - Councillor Ben Ord, Liberal Democrat Group, Sedgefield Borough Council.

PARKING

JOE Welthorpe (HAS, Jan 25), objects to Geoff Taylor's request for a disabled parking space mainly on the grounds that others are paying for them.

We do pay for many disabled facilities for those who need them. We also pay for schools when we don't have children. We pay for hospitals when we are not ill. We pay for prisons when we are law abiding and many more things that we personally do not use.

I don't have a blue badge, a free tax disc or a disabled-parking place, thank God, I don't want one. I hope, however, that they are still in existence should I ever suffer from a heart complaint, a serious injury or contract an illness that limits my mobility.

A minority do abuse the blue badge scheme but able-bodied drivers use disabled parking bays to just 'nip to the shop'.

Be thankful for your health and mobility, Mr Welthorpe, while you have it and be more understanding of the needs of others who are less fortunate through no fault of their own. - DC Hutchinson, Darlington.

ANIMAL WELFARE

I WRITE to express my horror at the poisoning, using a banned substance, of a red kite after it ingested food from a pheasant and a rabbit in the Tynedale area (Echo, Jan 22).

The fact that the red kite is a supposedly legally protected species makes its death no more abhorrent to me than that of the pheasant or rabbit. They were all living, sentient beings, but it makes a total mockery of our laws when individuals are permitted to snare, poison and shoot at will and yet they are shielded whilst so-called protected species are given no such honour.

I do wonder why this article wasn't more specific in its identification of where these creatures died. The Tynedale area covers a vast amount of space. Could it be that certain people are being protected, rather than the wildlife the law was introduced to oversee?

This is not only a case of cruelty to wildlife, but also of causing great potential distress to dog walkers, whose pets could inadvertently happen upon such danger.

The bewilderment and distress those little children of Winlaton School must be feeling after learning of the murder of 'Flash' can only be imagined.

Please, let us teach our young that such practices belong in the Dark Ages and not in 2005. - D Lister, Durham.

ECONOMY

IN response to Councillor Brian Walker (HAS, Jan 15), I agree that there appears to be a closer proximity in the national unemployment figure with those of Durham County.

I also sympathise with his statement that comparing DCC employment with Berks, Bucks, and Oxford is unfair.

However, he does try to insinuate that unemployment in DCC has dropped substantially in the last 20 years and compares favourably with the national average.

In Durham County Council's own Corporate and Best Value Performance Plan for 2003-4 it states that the county's figure does not capture the abnormally high, hidden unemployed.

The report carries on to say "the scale of the economic problems still facing the county is illustrated by a single stark fact: the Economic Strategy estimates the county would require 21,000 jobs for its employment rate to converge with the existing national figure - representing a 12 per cent increase in the current job total".

I think he is trying to put a positive spin to something that this Government has failed to do, which is to stem the loss of well paid manufacturing jobs in this area.

Manufacturing jobs, both manual and highly skilled, are disappearing in many instances, only to be replaced with low paid service jobs. Unless we can improve the situation, more and more young people are going to move out of the area, leaving many communities unsustainable. - Councillor Kevin Thompson, Liberal Democrat, Sedgefield Borough Council.

LAW AND ORDER

IT is good to know that Community Support Officers have been given extra powers to use in the fight against crime.

These powers include the right to detain suspects for up to 30 minutes until police arrive.

They will also be able to confiscate alcohol or tobacco from underage consumers.

For those people acting in an anti-social manner, the CSOs can demand a name and address from them.

Fixed penalties of up to £80 can be issued for graffiti, truancy, litter and cycling on pavements.

Despite protestations from some quarters, these measures, I feel sure, will be applauded by the public. - LD Wilson, Guisborough.

HOUSING

THERE is a bitter stench of hypocrisy emanating from the civic centre of Wear Valley District Council.

Councillors have voted to apply for funds of £27m to set up an Arms Length Management Organisation is essence of semi-privatisation of council housing.

This £27m is not a gift from the Government. It has to be borrowed and repaid by tenants. It is a mortgage on our homes.

The above mentioned hypocrisy is councillors (reporting to be democrats) refusing tenants the right to vote on this highly emotive issue. The council's own customer panel have requested a ballot, but councillors have voted not to hold a ballot. - Norman Button, Secretary, Woodhouse Close Residents' Action Group, Bishop Auckland.