MEDIA: I AM always reluctant to criticise the media, be it television, radio or newspapers.

But I am not very happy with news output from the BBC. We get endless repetition on a day to day basis.

Reputedly, the BBC has journalists all over the world, but judging by what we see on our screens many of them must be on permanent holiday.

The two most recent examples are these ghost ships heading for Hartlepool and the coverage of the Soham court case.

I find Radio 4 mostly very acceptable and regional newspapers like The Northern Echo far superior to the celebrity obsessed tabloids.

The Sunday broadsheets are very good, but it takes me a week to adequately read one.

Channel 4 and Jon Snow, for me, are the best for TV news. Mr Snow, like Jeremy Paxman, is never afraid to upset people in the search for the truth.

Having said all that, we must guard the freedom of all our media and concentrate on what is not being reported for whatever reason. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

BUS DRIVER

I WOULD like to praise the driver of the 16.43 No 31 bus to Mowden, Darlington, on Tuesday. He showed superb skill and quick reactions in avoiding a possible serious accident on Coniscliffe Road.

We were being driven out of town when a car pulled out of Manor Road to go towards Darlington. The bus driver had little time to react and all the passengers were braced for a collision.

Somehow the bus driver was able to swerve around the car and into Manor Road, then just as quickly, swerve back on to Coniscliffe Road when he was in danger of mounting the pavement.

The bus was able to pull up a little further along the road when the driver checked that all passengers were unhurt.

It was a brilliant manoeuvre which averted a serious accident.

On behalf of all passengers on the bus, can I thank him again. - RH Brookes, Darlington.

LAW AND ORDER

GATES have been put on some of our streets to protect us from thieves. Is this the way this country is going that we have to be imprisoned to make us safe?

Has nobody heard of punishment? It is time these people who make our lives a misery and imprison old people are dealt with in a short, sharp way.

We must bring back capital punishment. It may work and it is certainly cheaper in the long run. - A Parkin, Bishop Auckland.

MENTAL HEALTH

A SHOCKING statistic is the 5,000 people who in this country annually take their own lives.

This is an appalling indictment of the way mental health care is delivered - because it is significantly failing to reach those who need it most.

The fault lies not so much with clinicians and support workers, as with politicians and managers, who have consistently failed to provide an overall strategy for addressing one crucial aspect of the problem: the fact that, unlike other forms of illness, people with mental health problems cannot be relied on to seek help of their own accord.

Indeed, someone who is so low that suicide appears an increasingly attractive option may not even recognise the possibility of help.

So basically, the system needs to be radically more up front, obtrusive even, in focusing on life situations like bereavement, relationship break-ups, etc that generate acute mental distress.

This flies in the face of current thinking, but there is something fundamentally wrong with the latter when it can tolerate the statistic with which I started this letter. - T Kelly, Crook.

ROYAL FAMILY

HUGH Pender (HAS, Nov 6) suggests that Paul Burrell should cash in on his unique position.

Paul Burrell is making a killing because of a corrupt media and those who are dragging the credibility of what is truth and what is the best way to make a fast buck.

I am not a royalist, but I don't believe we should let the likes of Paul Burrell and others make fools of the British people.

If the Royals and their traditions are to be got rid of, or to stay, let's hope Paul Burrell and others are not allowed to drag the issue through the muck. - John Young, Crook.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY

CONSERVATIVE supporters will be hoping for a change of fortune now that they have a new leader in Michael Howard.

By uniting around one candidate, Tory MPs seem to have put their differences behind them, while at the same time allowing Iain Duncan Smith, who totalled a respectable 75 in a confidence vote, to bow out with some honour. It all looked rather tidy.

In selecting their new leader, the Tories may well have chosen wisely. At the recent Blackpool Conference, Mr Howard gave the best speech of all. He is, of course, a skilled and practised politician.

For the first time in years, the Conservatives are showing a united front and this is something that always appeals to the public. - LD Wilson, Guisborough.

WATER RATES

I HAVE written three times to Northumbrian Water, inquiring how it can assess the consumption of water from the rateable value of a house.

The only answer that it has come up with is that it is Government legislation.

I live alone, I have not got an automatic washer or anything that uses a considerable amount of water, yet I have to pay over £200 a year for water I do not use. I am paying as much as a family of five using showers and bath water every day.

I have also been informed that the average charges for a single occupier on a measured tariff is only £118.43 per head. So why charge single occupants over the odds in the first place?

After all, our gas and electricity bills are not assessed on the rateable value, so why is water?

Northumbrian Water is imposing these excessive charges on householders without regard to how much water we are using. - Mrs M Peart, Bishop Auckland.