CABBIES: HAVING spent over 30 years, most of it in managerial positions, in the Darlington taxi trade, it was with utter dismay that I read the article - and more to the point saw the photograph - of Darlington cabbies going to the High Court (Echo, Nov 30).

While I am sure no-one expects taxi drivers to appear guardsmen-type smart, I still feel it would have helped their case if they had turned up at the court looking rather more professional.

While I have a certain amount of sympathy with their case, I do not feel that they are a true reflection of the trade in Darlington as I daily see smartly dressed, ie collars and ties, cabbies who to my way of thinking, are more of a credit to what is, after all, a very difficult profession. - Tony Harland, Darlington.

AIRPORT SIGNS

LEAVING aside the ludicrous new name given to Teesside Airport, the Highways Agency is now replacing the old roadsigns, at a cost of £250,000, with new signs depicting a symbol of a plane to direct travellers to the airport (Echo, Dec 6).

Has no-one given a thought to those people flying from Newcastle Airport?

I think the new signs will be a recipe for disaster for travellers who do not know the area. - Kay Richmond, Durham City.

Billingham

I AGREE entirely with Mike Amos in his Eating Owt article about Billingham (Echo, Dec 7). It is a depressed and depressing town centre. The sad fact is Stockton Council does not want to spend any money on it. It is too busy spending money on Stockton - the high street being revamped again; apparently for the third time!

We returned to Billingham two years ago after spending 37 years living on the outskirts of York, and were amazed to find our council tax here for the same band property is far higher than we paid in York.

The best thing in Billingham town centre at the moment is Boyes Christmas window which is wonderful. - Dorothea Scarlett, Billingham.

I ATTENDED the independent-led Billingham Action Team (Bat) meeting to listen to the promised "unveiling" of its plans for the regeneration of Billingham town centre (Echo, Dec 3).

Getting rid of toilets and providing a performance area is just not good enough, and who was consulted about removing rather than replacing the public conveniences? Is Bat in favour of demolition again?

I agree we must all work together but my vision and ambitions for our town go way beyond theirs.

We are looking for a full development with constructive suggestions, new remodelled shops, better environment, new toilets, etc.

Quite a number of people, like myself, left the meeting feeling disappointed that the promised vision of the future turned out to be a trip down memory lane. Bat presented no ideas for the future. - Coun Barry Woodhouse, St Aidans Ward, Billingham.

ROADS

I HAVE recently returned from a visit to Spain. While there I was driven in a coach through a heavy rainstorm. At no time was there any significant accumulation of water on the surface of the road because they had been built with large concrete drainage ditches on either side to prevent this.

Most of our new roads have no such provision in spite of ten times the annual rainfall. The frequent flooding of our roads is made worse because the original engineers made them in cuttings with sloping verges.

Our road engineers could learn a good lesson from their Spanish counterparts. - Mrs A E Carr, Darlington.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

WINSTON CHURCHILL, Britain's great wartime leader, would be my choice as the best Prime Minster (Echo, Dec 1).

Through his inspirational speeches and determination to fight Hitler, Churchill made the British believe that they could win the Second World War.

During the war, it was said of Churchill that no one pronounced the word Nazi in quite the same disdainful way that he did.

When the war was over, Churchill remarked that it was the British people who had made the effort, while he had the good fortune to provide the roar.

He was admired in other ways too, particularly for his literature, and I remember my night school teacher saying that Churchill always used the most beautiful English.

Shortly after his death in 1965, his long-time friend, Lady Violet Bonham-Carter, described him as the most human of human beings. - LD Wilson, Guisborough.

POTTERY COURSE

THERE'S no room at the inn for some students at New College, Durham.

The new development of Framwellgate Moor proudly boasts itself "state of the art". The recently-opened building seems to have the inner dimensions of an airport terminal, but some teaching rooms are too small and many people feel worse off than they were at the old site.

Especially the pottery students.

When we eventually moved over to the new site, we found we hadn't been given a proper room for pottery. Instead, we were squashed into a tiny corner of a noisy room used by the bricklaying course. A man in a wheelchair and a lady with a guide dog had to cope with these difficult, cramped conditions.

Of course we complained about the way we had been treated. The management responded by closing our course. Durham deserves better. - Rose Reeve, Durham.

NEIL KINNOCK

NEIL Kinnock, the Labour leader who resigned following the General Election defeat of 1992, is to retire from his very lucrative job as European Union vice-president.

Mr Kinnock is 62, and was given the job by former Tory leader John Major (presumably for services to capitalism).

Mr Kinnock is remembered for hounding the Young Socialists out of the Labour Party and handing it over to the old right-wing fogies who now bow and scrape to the new messiah, Tony Blair.

Mr Kinnock condemned the violence of the 1984 miners' strike, not of the police, but of the miners. His waffling buffoonery at the dispatch box was only excelled by the comic opera when, with his wife Glenys, he fell into the sea at Blackpool.

He will receive a tax-free lump sum of £272,808. At the age of 65 he will receive a pension of £63,000 a year. His wife, however, will still be on the gravy train in Europe as a Euro MP.

Mr Kinnock will retire to the House of Lords, which he promised to abolish when he was Labour leader.

But it's Christmas. Let's be charitable.

I bought some Christmas cards, they have a religious theme. I will send one to Mr Kinnock. The writing on the bottom reads: "What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul." - James Fitzpatrick, Gateshead.