MAKING A DIFFERENCE: I WOULD like to offer sincere thanks to Dr David Bellamy for his magnificent presentation of the Making A Difference award to Brougham Residents' Association (Echo, Dec 2).

He was like a breath of fresh air, nothing too much for him, posing for pictures and chatting with everyone. One little girl thought he was Santa.

He could have simply given the award and left, but chose to stay and join the group celebrations.

Thank you David for a job well done, and also a thank you to John Dean and The Northern Echo for holding the Making A Difference in the Community awards. - V Tumilty, Hartlepool.

GARY FOWLER

GARY Fowler claims he knows about huge events that will unfold within the next year and has information for world leaders (Echo, Dec 2).

Good. I hope he shouts out warnings loudly and clearly. Anyone with half an eye on what is happening around the world can see we are on a collision course with chaos.

Those who read the Bible have been watching for and expecting such times for years.

Mr Fowler says he is not allowed to disclose information because it would unsettle society. Not allowed by whom?

If he has a message to give, he should give it and let people and unfolding events prove whether he is a true prophet or false.

Society could do with something to thoroughly shake it from complacency.

Our nation, among others, has turned its back on God and we are reaping the harvest.

Mr Fowler's "huge events" could be designed to bring us to our senses. Let us pray they do. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

FIRE SERVICE

MY husband is a retired firefighter who receives a pension he paid into for the whole of his fire service life, which was nearly 30 years.

That pension does not go up when the firemen get a rise, as was suggested by one of your readers (HAS, Nov 30).

It was such people as my husband and others like him who joined fire, police and prison services who did the ground work for the services we have today.

The firefighters are paid by the local authorities. That is why we pay our community charge. So if a fireman is on strike he isn't getting paid therefore he is unemployed and has no right in my opinion to be on council property or even be wearing a fireman's uniform and to be seen on TV rattling begging tins. - Name and address supplied.

AFTER reading so many letters from readers regarding the firemen's strike, I would like to add that all firemen are told the salary they will get for the job if they decide to join the service.

If they don't like it, they should get a different job. They can always go on the dole. - D May, Sedgefield.

IN answer to Olive Fish (HAS, Nov 30) regarding the fire brigade being the same as the police force with no strike and the same pay, that was how it was when denationalised in 1948.

Pre-war some brigades were police fire brigades, so after denationalisation all fire brigades had "police parity" so when police got a rise in pay the firemen also got the same.

But when the FBU gave it up they told the firemen that, as they were working longer hours than the police, they would get higher pay. It never happened.

The FBU also gave up free rent allowance and accepted a 15 shillings pay rise (admittedly rent at that time was about ten shillings). But how many would give back the 75p rise and have their mortgage paid for them? - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

AMBULANCE SERVICE

I WOULD like to endorse the sentiments (HAS, Nov 26) about ambulance car drivers.

I had to go to the general hospital in Newcastle. Everyday, Monday to Friday, I was picked up at the door and taken there and returned home when treatment was finished.

Days when I needed a wheelchair, they got one for me and took me where I had to go. If no chair was needed, they walked me safely in.

These ambulance car drivers are all volunteers, paid only mileage, but the care and cheery smile help make the hospital visit more cheerful.

They deserve a very big thank you for giving up their time to help others. My thanks to them always. - Mrs M Swales, Durham.

SINGLE CURRENCY

IT has been claimed repeatedly that Britain not being part of the euro is not having any effect on overseas companies setting up in Britain.

At Prime Minister's Questions on November 27, Tony Blair admitted for the first time that foreign investment into Britain is falling.

Foreign investors have repeatedly made clear that they won't wait forever for Britain to make its mind up on the euro, and they are starting to vote with their feet.

Britain is forecast to receive five per cent of investment into Europe this year, compared to an average 28 per cent before the euro was launched. While France and Germany are protected from the global downturn in investment because of their membership of the euro, isolation is damaging Britain. - R Ashby, Secretary, North East in Europe.