27/05/03

It is completely untrue to say that post offices are closing due to the changes in the way benefits, pensions etc, are paid - where is the evidence of this?

If your correspondent and others who have written similarly read the information available at their local post office and speak to the staff there, they will find out that anyone who wishes to continue having their pension, child benefit or whatever, paid there can still do so.

In fact, as post offices can now offer a range of banking services on behalf of many high street banks, we can all make more use, not less, of these local facilities. For example, those who have always had their pensions paid into a bank account may now be able to start withdrawing their money at post offices and so help to keep this important local service going. - Name and address supplied.

Afghanistan

HUGH Pender (HAS, May 20) quite rightly points out that Afghanistan has turned out to be a disaster largely unreported in the media.

Please add this to the many shameless acts, also largely unreported in the media, by the arrogant and shamelss government that is "New" Labour, but quite clearly well past its sell-by date. - Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland Conservatives.

CARNIVAL FLOATS

I WOULD like to bring the attention of every community in the country to the local authority health and safety officers' mandate to stop the traditional local carnival floats on so called health and safety grounds.

The organisers of our carnival, the Chamber of Trade, received a letter from Durham County Council. The letter came via Sedgefield Borough Council, and stated that: "The ultimate control measure was to eliminate the risk (of an accident of falling from the floats) totally ie, Do not put anyone on the vehicles (floats)."

I wonder if the Notting Hill Carnival or the Lord Mayor's traditional show will have to be abandoned.

Either the council is terrified of there being an accident on Tony Blair's doorstep, or it begrudges spending money to police the parade.

We are becoming a nation of wimps who are not allowed to be adventurous, competitive or gregarious.

The nanny state, once again, dictates how we are to 'enjoy' ourselves. - Mrs C Wrightson, Shildon.

EUROPE

THE calls for a referendum on the new European Union constitution are premature, since the paper on which the members need to work has not yet been completed, let alone debated.

However, researching and passing opinions on elements that it will include is a healthy way to gain understanding of what we have already got, as well as what we might want.

The current constitution is made up of a series of treaties and fits the common needs of the current membership. The European Union family is growing considerably bigger and, as with any family that experiences such large increases, it has to have a review of its organisation. It is therefore sensible to update the treaties into one.

It is also sensible to bring about changes that make the Union easier to understand, improve the way it works and establish communications that allow everyone access to its workings.

We need to look at the implications of the growing family for the organisation and reconfigure it for the good of all. The debate needs to cover common problems where joint solutions are needed and put in place. We must decide on the issues that belong to individual members, enabling them to make the best contribution to the whole.

What we do not need is to get hung up on the referendum issue on the constitution of the European Union when we already have the opportunity to make our views known through established channels. - Bill Morehead, Darlington.

PIGEONS

WITH reference to the letter concerning pigeons (HAS, May 19), can I please reply to the comment made?

I worked in a large factory in Coventry in the late 1960s. The job was of a temporary nature and I worked with two other lads on general labouring cleaning duties. It was during this time that I developed an increased knowledge of just what a pigeon is about and what it loves to do.

Most certainly defecating from a great height is one of its principal interests, and boy can this bird create masses of excrement.

You will appreciate I speak from personal experience of the pigeons' great toilet abilities. Every morning we had to hose down 'pigeon alley' where masses of pigeon poo had been deposited over the past 24 hours. No matter how pristine we made the alley, the same appalling mess was there the following morning.

So my message to everyone is never to underestimate the potential of the pigeon to pollute the environment. He may well target you next. - Derek Parker, County Durham.