I WAS a self-employed butcher for most of my working life, working not less than 80 hours a week and taking three days holiday a year. I never had a full Sunday free from work.

I had two children who I helped through college, and never in my life had I half of £400 a week, never mind a 40 per cent increase.

Now I am retired, does this mean I have to pay more to afford these greedy firemen? - Name and address supplied.

WHEN the firemen get their pay rise, although it is doubtful that it will be 40 per cent, will they then think about any firemen who will have been retired the week before if he has reached the 55 years age limit?

He will no doubt get the annual pensions increase of about one or two per cent. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

FOXHUNTING

LET us look at both sides of the coin when considering fox hunting.

There is little double that foxes are a very grave concern to the local shepherd. I have been present at daybreak on a lambing field after a visit from foxes during the night. There are not many sights that are more heartbreaking.

Foxes not only kill for food but for natural instinct. Thousands of ground-nesting birds rear a brood of young each year only to see them eaten alive by foxes.

The experiments, like the one carried out on Langhorne Moor where they did a bird count of all wild birds when the foxes were controlled by gamekeepers and again two years later after 24 months of non-control, proved beyond doubt that to give nature a helping hand, foxes do need to be controlled.

Please note I use the word controlled, and not exterminated.

When you examine the many legal methods of fox control I believe it comes down to two. The first is by a rifle and high-powered lamp which shows top-class results, or hunting with hounds.

Even the very best of shots can wound an animal sometimes, but with hunting it either dies a very quick death or it gets clean away. There are no half ways.

What the hunt does to foxes for three months the fox does to others all year. - Bill Young, Middleton St George.

Bishop Auckland

THE introduction of a town centre manager to oversee improvements to Bishop Auckland is welcomed by this party.

The innovative Town Hall is also a source of pride. However, the local authority will again seek to make money rather than provide a service for the people of Bishop Auckland.

While I don't doubt the need, news that the council may approve sheltered housing for the prime site of the old football field, Kingsway, makes me despair at those who run the district.

Woodhouse Close Leisure Centre is clearly being run down and news that the town recreation field may be sold for housing is disgraceful. Ask the young people and families what they want. Your answer will inevitably be a skate park, cinema, ten pin bowling, no more cheap shops, better parking and a crackdown on the mindless minority.

Bishop Auckland could and should be a little gem of a town, yet the people have no real say within the district and at county level we don't even have a representative on the controlling cabinet. It is a town without a voice. - J Tague, Chairman, Conservative Party, Bishop Auckland Branch.

LONNIE DONEGAN

HOW sad to hear of the death of Lonnie Donegan (Echo, Nov 5). Youngsters of today would be amazed if they realised how Lonnie inspired a generation of popstar wannabees back in the Fifties.

It was the beginning of pop groups, boy bands or whatever you care to call them.

Back then there was no expensive equipment, keyboards were on a piano, the bass was a tea chest with a pole and length of string attached, while the percussion section was a washboard scraped by thimble-clad fingers.

Lonnie was a true pioneer of the pop scene we know today. The big difference is his songs were light-hearted, catchy and tuneful.

The black mood, sexual innuendo and bad language of many of today's songs had no place in his performances. The King of Skiffle will be greatly missed. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

JUSTICE FOR THE MINERS

I WAS, after 30 years as a coal miner, made redundant in June 1974.

The Northern Echo's campaign of Justice for Miners is most commendable, yet there appears to be an obvious travesty of justice that hasn't been given its due consideration.

I refer to the treatment of many long service miners, those who left the industry prior to 1975, thus being subsequently excluded from the right to claim compensation for Vibration White Finger, totally regardless of their degree of incapacity.

This by reason of a penny-pinching piece of legislation whereby a cut-off date for claimants is strictly enforced.

At present many of the longer serving ex-miners, in all probability those with the greater degree of incapacity, are systematically cast aside.

It's morally wrong. It's patently unfair.

Surely this anomalous situation is in dire need of rectification?

It needs to be challenged. - AE Dunn, Spennymoor.