Grate news

My old schoolteacher, a Ken Milburn of Richmond National School, was very fond of using phrases which stayed in the memory one of which was "Nature abhors a vacuum". So it would seem, does the independent hardware trade, for I have discovered a shop selling black lead grate polish very similar to Zebrite.

The strict rules of advertising preclude me from mentioning the shop by name, but it is a very traditional ironmongers in Tadcaster. No doubt this will shortly reappear in a traditional hardware shop near here, where the motto is "good service" rather than the "doesn't sell very well not much profit get rid of it" attitude of the supermarkets.

Also, thanks to the power of the Press, I have received a letter from the last surviving producer of washing soda in the UK. They continue to manufacture this item and indeed export it to other countries where demand for it is showing a healthy annual increase.

However, another victim of the health and safety bureaucracy will soon be paraffin - now to be sold only in plastic sealed containers and as a result very expensive.

Unless my ironmonger friends install at great expense a totally sanitised area to store bulk paraffin more akin to a nuclear power station, they will not be allowed to sell it by the gallon/litre anymore. In all my years in this business I have yet to hear of an ironmonger's shop burning down in a fire caused by bulk paraffin being sold.

How will gardeners who produce bedding plants and tasty tomatoes be able to keep the UK looking so beautiful if the cost of producing the plants is going to be prohibitive because of the price of fuel for the greenhouse heaters?

Nobody ever considers the long-term effects of decisions on everyday people's lives and it's time that they did.

OLIVER BLEASE

Newbiggin,

Richmond.

Sir, - I was interested to see a letter from Mr Blease about the demise of the ironmongers.

We would like to assure Mr Blease that washing soda is still available and will be for a long time to come.

PETER MAXWELL

Dri-Pak Ltd,

Ilkeston,

Derbyshire.

Vital issue

Sir, - Robbie McDonald's report and your leading article (D&S, Apr 11) deal with a matter absolutely vital to Teesside. Rail or road?

The issue is the East Middlesbrough Bypass planned to run along the Esk Valley railway line from Great Ayton to Middlesbrough.

This route was proposed in 1966 when Teesside was far behind every other town in the country in car ownership, as it was also in many other things. The Teesside Survey and Plan, published in 1967, was intended to haul Teesside into the then modern world over a period of 25 years, so that it would attain the average position of other urban areas by 1992.

There were provisions in the Plan for reviews every five years, for you cannot plan accurately over a quarter of a century. This road proposal should have been eliminated in one of those reviews, because now, 37 years on , cities have changed dramatically.

The Great Ayton to Middlesbrough line is a working railway. It should be upgraded to a fast light railway with car parking and secure cycle parking at every stop to serve passengers from Stokesley, Guisborough,

Great Ayton and all those other inner areas of South Teesside.

You mention the snag of this being a one-off! In fact Teesside needs this kick start into the 21st century. A fast light railway on this line would connect to the Saltburn to Darlington line along the Tees Valley, this being the next route for upgrading.

The future of city transport is light rail, not more roads. We know that on roads traffic increases to fill the space available, whereas railways ease the traffic flows on roads. To convert the Esk Valley rail line to a road would be moving back into the past.

FRANKLIN MEDHURST

Greystone,

Carlton,

Stockton-on-Tees.

Please drop in

Sir, - At long last, Anne McIntosh has produced an accurate and unarguable statistic, that "the Conservative Party has been out of power since 1997." (D&S Times, April 18).

Are we now to infer that previous Conservative governments may no longer be criticised for their gross mismanagement, the effects of which continue to affect our society?

I think not and I would like to remind her that a much earlier Conservative government carried out the worst act of rural vandalism that I can remember

The perpetrator was a Mr Beeching, who ripped up thousands of miles of rural rail track and closed hundreds of rural railway stations. Why? Because they did not make a profit and that is the bedrock of Tory policy and was the reason for neglect of school buildings, abandonment of public transport for rural communities, closures of homes for the aged, neglect of highway improvements and much, very much more, during the life time of the last (hopefully the very last) Conservative government.

The rest of Anne McIntosh's letter was in part both untrue and misleading. So far as her discussions with Vale of York postal personnel and customers are concerned, she must have been highly selective in whom she chose to converse with.

ALAN BENN

Labour party candidate,

Leeming Ward,

Hambleton District Council.

Real agenda

Sir, - I am as concerned as Olivia Agate (D&S letter, April 11) by the swingeing police precept in the North Yorkshire council tax, mainly because our present Government is clearly shifting fiscal burdens on to the shoulders of individual home owners.

But Ms Agate has other ideas, and nobody should be fooled by her suggestion that the rise in police costs is caused by over-reaction to harmless gatherings at remote military installations by the odd handful of peaceful, well-meaning people. That may be how such demonstrators would like us to see them, but not how, given sufficient numbers, they are disposed to behave. One has only to recall the disturbances at RAF Greenham Common in the Eighties to need no further evidence of that.

The object of a peaceful demonstration must surely be to gain the sympathy of the uncommitted, but they are the people least likely to be hanging around the perimeters of fairly isolated military bases.

What the peaceniks really seem to want is, at best, to harass staff and disrupt their work, or at worst, if sufficiently mob-handed, to cause wanton criminal damage.

We have seen it before and the police are right to turn out in sufficient force to handle any whiff of trouble.

One may be forced to wonder, anyway, why an inoffensive lady like Ms Agate, should be travelling so much and so far from her home in Skipton to attend, on one occasion, a "small" demonstration at RAF Fylingdales whose professed aim was to symbolically reclaim British territory from the USA; or on another occasion, with an un-named companion, to spend more than seven hours putting station security at RAF Leeming to the test.

It could reduce the council tax if she and her friends would just stay away from such places.

CHRISTOPHER HORN

Vine House,

Dishforth.

Hostel must stay

Sir, - It is not unexpected to learn the YHA has "thrown in the towel" over Aysgarth Hostel. Many of us suspected it was going through the motions and that the £400,000 target was unlikely to be attained, while what the money was intended for did not seem to be relevant to the Association's principal aims.

What readers should be aware of is that this is not the only loss to Yorkshire's hostel network, for its "trustees" have this year dealt with disposal of Ellingstring in lower Wensleydale, as well as Linton in Wharfedale. Thus, the total loss of beds will be about 100, with no guarantee of any replacements.

Members of the YHA should query what is happening to the £600,000 cash from these sales, and why it is not being applied to saving key hostels, such as Aysgarth. Cyclists in particular will ponder about the official statement which claims that potential visitors believe Aysgarth "does not provide the quality of accommodation or facilities they would like."

Admittedly, it is not an ideal building, but does meet the needs of most of us who need overnight or longer simple accommodation, while a more modest improvement than that which the YHA estimates would cost £700,000 seems to be more appropriate in the current circumstances.

It appears that the YHA has now been taken over by marketing professionals and have pushed up costs dramatically.

Coun Blackie is right to criticise the association for its lack of commitment with a paltry contribution of £50,000, but it is also sad that others have not been able to give support. Our own approaches to various groups have been ignored, and there is no indication of what happened to our suggestions for partnership and sponsorship deals or interest-free loans from members.

Prominent organisations like the Yorkshire Tourist Board appear to have been notably silent on this issue.

Aysgarth is a venue that has served country-goers for more than 50 years, and must be allowed to continue to do so and maintain that required degree of vitality to this dale's economy.

A final question - if this hostel sale is to be constrained by national park planning policy, why was Linton able to be sold so easily and did the policies not apply in Wharfedale?

R HEALEY

Cyclists' Touring Club,

Rights/Planning Officer,

Howard Drive,

York,

How much longer?

Sir, - Standing in the queue at the Cheese Lady van in Leyburn to buy some cheese, my dog sat and waited patiently, but a short distance away, in the bus shelter, dogs started barking and growling in unison.

My dog was alarmed and startled and I felt nervous and threatened by them as did passers-by in the market place.

I continued to wait to be served, as I have every right to do so, but visitors and local people were also alarmed by the amount of growling and barking from the dogs in the bus shelter.

As everyone is aware in Leyburn, the bus shelter is the most famous abode of the tramp, his cronies and their dogs.

It was also apparent by the amount of noise that the dogs made that they see the bus shelter as their property and were only protecting it.

But for the tramp to get up and stand in the entrance and shout at me: "Get your dog out of here, it's a lunatic!" when it was more than obvious to everyone who witnessed his outburst that the only lunatic was the tramp, for not controlling his dogs in the first place!

How much longer do we have to put up with this man, his bad manners, his foul mouth and his unruly dogs?

If he continues to resident for much longer, which no doubt he will, he will be the main attraction that Leyburn is noted for, which is very sad.

H ALDERSON

Riseber,

Leyburn.

Shelter points

Sir, - I wish to point out several inaccuracies in an article headed "Protest over bus shelter in village with no bus service" (D&S, Apr 18)

The bus shelter referred to would be for the use of schoolchildren only, to protect them from the elements while waiting for the daily school bus, and for no other purpose.

Reference to the parish council withdrawing its original approval - which was considered by the highways department to be safe - of the site mentioned in the article is incorrect.

As a result of Mr Lowey's objections, the parish council has agreed to investigate an alternative solution which, at the moment, is under consideration by the county council. In brief, no decision has been made.

This is the first time, to the best of my knowledge, that a bus shelter has been proposed.

DENIS HOWEY

Chairman,

Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe Parish Council