02/12/03

When he was a student at Oxford at the time of a Conservative Government, when students enjoyed a minimum grant in addition to fee-free tuition, there was a suggestion that the grant could be abolished, David Miliband, the son of a university professor, took to the streets with the slogan "Can't Pay, Won't Pay". Now he is a member of a Labour Government which wishes to deny to others what he and most of his colleagues received under a Tory Government.

This pernicious charge will deter students from less well-off parents going to university since when they graduate, they could be faced with debts of more than £30,000.

To start working life with this sort of debt at a time when they are likely to want to set up home or even get married, is not acceptable. If their wife or a partner was also a student, they could have debts of more than £60,000. Is this the start in life Labour wishes to offer our future generations?

Labour says they wish to increase the number of school leavers who go to university to 50 per cent, but with these charges they will deter the very students they say they wish to attract.

In the North-East we have the lowest uptake of higher education of any region in England and these fees can only exacerbate the problem.

Tony Blair has got it wrong. It is up to Mr Milliband to put him right. - George Smith, South Shields

WIND FARMS

YOUR report (Echo, Nov 13) covering the erection of four wind turbines in County Durham stated that they will be connected to the National Grid.

This is impossible since the Grid operates at 400,000 volts - such a connection would put the wind turbines into orbit.

The report also stated that they would reduce carbon emissions by 9,000 tonnes per year - this is ludicrous. Carbon is a solid matter and 9,000 tonnes would be a very large heap so if the statement were true, the country would be covered in a thick black layer.

Newspaper reports on wind farms these days leave something to be desired - they seem to be full of inaccurate statements.

They could start by asking at what voltage wind turbines generate their power, how it is transmitted and at exactly which point it is fed into the distribution system. Also, how exactly does the operation of four wind turbines in County Durham affect the emissions from the boilers of a fossil fuel power station many miles away.

A good deal of what wind turbine operators, lobby groups, etc., say about wind power generation of electricity does not bear detailed questioning.

I await a revised report with interest. - John Routledge, Durham.

SECOND WORLD WAR

I WAS interested to read Harry Mead's column on nostalgia in Britain over the Second World War (Echo, Nov 26).

I remember some years ago, the late Lord Boothby appearing on the radio programme Any Questions, and saying: "I sometimes look back with nostalgia to the days of the war. At that time there was a great feeling of community spirit in the country. People on a crowded bus or train would give up their seat to others. The helpfulness of people was there for all to see."

The Second World War is remembered by those of a certain age, and this was an account by a man with vivid memories of the period.

- LD Wilson, Guisborough

EDUCATION

I APPLAUD M Armstrong's remarks about the human cost of school amalgamations. (HAS, Nov 26).

Local services are best delivered locally. By contrast, centralisation, in whatever walk of life - railways, health, utilities - is the curse of our age and is responsible for more misery, frustration, waste and inefficiency than any other single factor.

Obviously the planners and politicians responsible for this trend are satisfied they've got all of their sums right and no doubt they have - on paper. But one important element they leave out of the equation is people, and people are unique and irreplaceable, just like the expertise, skills and experience of the dedicated teachers thrown on the scrapheap when schools close.

To waste priceless human resources like this is mind-boggling in its stupidity, ignorance, arrogance and sheer inhumanity. - Tony Kelly, Crook.

MIDDLE EAST

I MUST support Anne Wright's views (HAS, Nov 22). "The great American dream of freedom for all" seems very unlikely with the Bush administration's foreign, ecological, and trade policies. It certainly does not apply in US policies for the desperate Palestinian situation.

Brutal attacks on Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces; illegal and cruel occupation of large areas of the best Palestinian land; the inhuman destruction of houses, hospitals and farms, and confiscation of their water supplies has meant indescribable suffering for the Palestinian people and starving and traumatised children.

Now, with the Israeli building of the huge apartheid wall deep inside Palestinian territory, grabbing more fertile land and water and severely restricting residents' movement, it appears that Israeli forces are trying to crush Palestinian people into oblivion. The wall violates the Geneva Convention, the Declaration of Human Rights, the 1973 International Convention on Apartheid and many UN resolutions.

Yet, on October 5, Britain abstained in a UN Security Council vote against the wall, the US actually used its veto to stop the resolution.

This utter failure to uphold international law, to prevent a humanitarian disaster must warrant massive protests in the UK and US and a total boycott of Israeli goods. - FG Bishop, Darlington.

ROAD WORKS

ACCORDING to your report (Echo, Nov 20) Durham County Council has set up a unit to try to minimise the disruption caused by roadworks.

The council hopes to co-ordinate work done by utilities so that a road is not dug up by one company only to be followed a month later by another.

For a start, the terminology is wrong. Much the greater part the disruption is not caused by roadworks but by utility works - gas, water, sanitary sewers, storm drains, telephone, electricity, and possibly others.

But where has Durham County Council been all these years?

Nearly 40 years ago I served on what was called the Public Utilities Coordinating Committee in Ontario, Canada. Representatives of each utility met about quarterly and all brought their projected forward planning to the meeting.

In this way everybody knew what was intended and quite frequently timing was adjusted to ensure minimum disruption. In some cases one contractor would be hired to carry out work for two or three utilities at the same time. - Willis Collinson, Durham.