ENVIRONMENT: MY initial reaction to the news that some ships from the Ghost Fleet were heading our way was one of "shame".

President Clinton had signed up to agreements that the US would not export their hazardous waste; our own Government also had stopped the import of hazardous materials.

However, they have moved the goal posts and it looks as if it's a done deal and nothing can be done to stop it.

My big concern is that there HAS to exist a cast iron system of checks and balances. The Environment Agency is under funded and has insufficient staff to monitor such a undertaking - seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year.

In fact, they would be struggling to visit the site once or twice a year, so where does that leave us, the people of Hartlepool?

This sort of work can only be done one way, the right way, and that does not come cheap. I am, as yet, unconvinced that I have nothing to worry about. - Geoff Lilley, Hartlepool.

EUROPE

TO many local residents, the internal workings of the European Union in Brussels and Strasbourg are of little consequence.

Yet unelected bureaucrats in Europe are working on plans for a European Constitution that would have huge implications for Darlington.

Laws and regulations ranging from transport to social policy, from the environment to law and order, would be decided by distant pen-pushers in a foreign country, rather than by elected representatives in Britain.

Local councils like Darlington would be jumping to the demands of European diktats. British politicians may not rate highly in the popularity stakes, but at least the voters can kick out those who fail to deliver, which they cannot do with those who run Europe.

Given the Government believes in holding referenda on other constitutional changes - from an elected mayor in Hartlepool to regional assemblies for the North-East - why shouldn't voters in Darlington also be given a voice on these major constitutional upheavals?

This is why Darlington Council should put pressure on the Government to hold a national referendum on the proposed European Constitution.

I would encourage residents across Darlington to lobby their local councillors to support this call. It's your country, and the decision on who governs it should be your choice. - Councillor Charles Johnson, Darlington.

RURAL ECONOMY

Those who work and live in the North-East rural community are becoming increasingly restless. The reasons are numerous and deep seated.

Rural incomes are now well below the national average. Earnings from farming have fallen by 70 per cent in the past decade. Farming produce fell from £6bn to £1.8bn in the period 1995 to 2000 and is still falling.

The disappearance of banks, post offices, public transport and affordable housing, together with more expensive fuel and lack of police, ambulance and health care services is causing rural unrest.

The foot-and-mouth disaster of 2001 was the most harrowing experience the rural community had experienced in living memory; the economic effect of which lingers on. Tens of thousands of small businesses suffered huge losses of income through no fault of their own. The estimate of the damage on the nation's overall economy was in the region of £20bn.

Post foot-and-mouth rural Britain remains in deep and resentful depression which is a measure of the severity of the problem which most people in Britain, least of all politicians from all sides, do not appreciate. - Peter Troy, Chairman, Darlington Branch Federation of Small Business.

AFRICA

PRESENT problems in Liberia, recent events in Sierra Leone, terrorist attacks in Kenya, the killing fields of The Congo, atrocities in Rwanda, the mindless destruction of Zimbabwe, famine in Sudan and Ethiopia, Aids and HIV rife in South Africa and many other countries. A small list of the many problems facing Africa.

Well, not according to some of your contributors (HAS, Aug 18), who think Prince William's killing of a small deer is worthy of their wrath.

Was the Prince not out with Masai warriors, whose skills in hunting partly attribute to their very survival?

Yes, I agree, given present media scrutiny, he was more than a little nave, but I fear you mixed your dislike of the Royals with your "pretend love of animals".

After all, I did not hear you complaining about Iceland renewing whaling on the high seas, nor, and despite much hard work by the authorities, the continued loss of hundreds of wild salmon, one of the planet's greatest creatures, in the nearby Tyne. - Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland.