Sir, - North Yorkshire is rightly loved by its present occupants, and now we know it was also important to our far-distant predecessors. The county is fortunate to possess henge monuments older than Stonehenge, and set in a prehistoric landscape potentially of international importance.

The traces of early man are fragile and vulnerable - and at times amazing. Uniquely, three henges in alignment were built at Thornborough, six-metres high, 245-metres across, perhaps with banks coated with gypsum crystals to make them gleam. Were those builders attracted by the 1.2km-long ditch, cursus and burial mounds already there? And 2000 years later, people returned to set up avenues of wooden posts, one stretching 350m, and build more burial mounds.

What drew our ancestors to clear this area of woodland and build their monuments here from the fourth millennium BC? Tantalising glimpses are being recovered, but our successors may never have an answer, for the area is already being quarried, part of the centre henge has gone, three weekends ago pit alignments were destroyed. Discussions are underway now to extend the quarrying, destroying all the pre-historic records and then flood the area leaving the henges as islands.

In the hills of Northumberland, a different kind of landscape reflects man's use over thousands of years, including rock carvings, burial cairns and hill forts. That landscape is treasured by the national park which welcomes people on walks, provides information and visitor centres and English Heritage is engaged in an in-depth study of the monuments and their setting.

The hills are, of course, fortunate in not being of interest to the gravel industry, but to say one pre-historic landscape is worth treasuring and another destroying is nonsense. Gravel is not in short supply. Perhaps we have a serious treasure in our backyard; let's find out before we destroy it. Just think how popular would be the company which put its name to our own "Stonehenge".

PAT DEAN

Thornfield Road,

Darlington.

Not fair

Sir, - The vote by Richmondshire District Council on Tuesday to adopt a new complaints procedure is another nail in the coffin of local democracy.

It is the third amendment within three years and makes it virtually impossible for members of the electorate to effectively complain to councillors of the Standards Committee, the last stage of the complaints procedure.

If you wish to complain about the chief executive you have to complain to the monitoring officer, and if you wish to complain about the monitoring officer you have to complain to the chief executive. No discussion or examination took place by councillors at the Standards Committee or the full council.

Coun Pelton's proposal to have these issues examined in more detail did not even get a seconder. No wonder there is a general sense of dissatisfaction amongst the electorate of this council and this will ultimately push us further In the direction of a regional assembly.

Surely we can expect higher standards from our elected representatives. It is not surprising that certain individuals succeed in pushing forward their own views when there is such appalling apathy amongst councillors themselves.

We tinker with everything but achieve very little. Before we involve ourselves in a Europe-wide constitution we should see to it that the fundamentals of democracy in our local community are addressed first.

BERNARD BORMAN

Acting chairman, Richmondshire & Hambleton Democracy Movement,

Brentwood,

Leyburn.