Letters

WE would like to thank Hartlepool council, the staff at Tescos and other shops, and all the staff at the Historic Quay and museum.

We had a week's holiday in Hartlepool to visit my son. Being a wheelchair user, I find it is not always easy to get around, but everyone has been so kind and always willing to offer help without me needing to ask.

At the Historic Quay and museum and I fully expected to find that I would not be able to get around that beautiful old ship, HMS Trincomalee, but, to my great joy, I was told that I could. I have nothing but the highest praise for the staff on the ship, and especially one young man who took us up and down on the wheelchair lift. He won't forget my cheeky chatter for a while. I wonder how his neck is.

It beats me why people from up North come all the way down to Wales when you have such great things to see and do up here.

Other favourite places of ours are Redcar, Whitby and Otterburn. We go each year and never tire of seeing these places. The people are so friendly and helpful as well.

Our thanks to all of you who make it such a good holiday. - Pat, Ivor and Adrian Bishop, Newtown, Powys.

BNP

OUR Labour politicians have no right to object to BNP member Trevor Agnew acting as treasurer to the new Harrowgate Hill Community Group in Darlington (Echo, Aug 15). Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are also members of the group.

This is supposed to be a free and democratic country. I and thousands of people did not vote BNP but, believe me, there are millions of people who agree with their policy on illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, who are costing taxpayers millions of pounds to the detriment of our own people. - F Wealands, Darlington.

DISABLED PARKING

IT IS not uncommon to see a car park in a disabled car space and a spritely young man or girl get out, obviously not disabled.

It is usually a son or daughter who is borrowing their parent's disabled sticker. Is there any way of stopping this and preventing an honest disabled driver from using that space?

Why not issue a disabled badge with a car registration and National Insurance number on and, if a car is parked in a disabled space with the wrong registration number on, then the driver could be prosecuted for wrongful parking. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

PETER MULLEN

I RATHER enjoyed Peter Mullen's column on the way people say 'love', 'dear', 'honey' and 'chuck' (Echo, Aug 19).

They are all good, friendly expressions and yes, Mr Mullen is allowed to say 'bloke' and 'lass' when in the North-East.

Many years ago I left my native North-East to live and work in Derbyshire where I came across the expression 'duck'.

This can take a bit of getting used to, but is really quite pleasant.

I only came home occasionally but when I did it was good to hear the local accents again. - LD Wilson, Scarborough.

PETER Mullen (Echo, Aug 19) is now based in London so he must agree with me that Roseberry Topping, Runswick Bay, Saltburn, etc, look better after a spell away.

What amuses me is that people from the south coast holiday in the North-East, while people from this area holiday on the south coast. They each return home full of praise for where they went on holiday. Hence the old saying: "A change is as good as a rest."

They also say travel broadens the mind. But William Shakespeare not only never ever left England, but also never travelled very widely within it. - Alfred H Lister, Guisborough.

Northallerton MART

THE proposed move of the auction mart from the Applegarth in Northallerton was not a straight relocation of its current activities (Echo, Aug 14 and 23). What was proposed was a substantial intensification of activities comparable in size to the auction mart at Murton, near York, with similar problems.

Residents of the St James Drive area are not opposed to a move from the Applegarth and sympathise with the residents of the area around the present site. But the problem would not be solved by relocation to another sensitive area. - R Matthews, Northallerton.

ROYAL FAMILY

THE debate about the Royal Family (HAS, Aug 23) turns on the question: do they have a valid role in modern Britain?

Given the institution's extraordinary resilience in the past, one is inclined to say yes.

However, that response does not survive a careful look at the evidence. Ardent monarchists used to say that the Royals' modern role was as an example to the rest of us of traditional family values. That was not true then and it most emphatically is not true now.

My view is that the Royal Family has promoted the artificial elitism - the protective insulation of people at the top from the raw reality of life at grass roots level - that explains our disastrous decline over the last 100 years.

In short, the Royals are a pernicious and hugely expensive encumbrance and should be discarded. - T Kelly, Crook.