THE report on the future of Weardale lacks the kind of substance needed to help the people of Weardale and Wear Valley as a whole.

The loss of jobs cannot be replaced with suggestions that will benefit the tourist or those wishing to enjoy the scenery.

Housing prices in the dales are rising rapdily, which will make it very difficult for many young people born and bred in the dales, to live there for the rest of their lives.

Weardale is becoming a place for the benefit of the better off.

The closure of industry in the dale is a disgrace and a failure on the part of those in whom we place our trust.

The Labour Party has ruled this region for as long as I have known and before that, so why doesn't it start looking after the people it proposes to represent? - John Young, Crook.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

THE front page story (Echo, Aug 12) was a sanctimonious expression of sympathy for a Darlington teenager who had attacked and robbed a girl in the street and was subsequently remanded into a 'grown-up' jail.

Regrettably, but unsurprisingly, I couldn't see a single word of concern for the assaulted victim.

The headline, Teenager's ordeal, apparently referred only to the assailant. What sort of people are you?

You complain of a shortage of secure accommodation for young offenders. I suggest the real problem is an uncontrollable excess of teenage undesirables.

We have all seen these little wasters aimlessly loitering on streets and shopping malls, foul-mouthed, insolent and streetwise, swaggering and smirking, cocksure of the protection with which our risible legal system cossets them.

Yet if they ever appear in court, they are quick to cringe behind the anonymity which the law so eagerly provides. - David Sparks, Hartlepool.

A PARKIN (HAS, Aug 13) says that British justice is the pits. How right he is.

Until capital punishment is brought back and chemical castration is used on sex offenders nothing will change.

Prime Minister Tony Blair should give the British people a vote on these two punishments to fit certain crimes instead of blathering on about the British people voting to join the euro or not. - TE Crook, Bishop Auckland.

DISABLED PARKING

I READ with interest the article (Echo, Aug 6) concerning the disabled, and parking fines.

Although I do not feel that it is in any way part of my job to justify the actions, or otherwise, of over-zealous traffic wardens, perhaps this case should still be looked at from a slightly different angle.

It is not unknown for cars to be broken into and orange badges stolen, to be sold on to people to use who have no entitlement to do so. Or for grandson/daughter to keep gran's badges in the car and use them whenever it is convenient to do so, even when granny is miles away at home, or even dead.

It is very common for the carer of a disabled person to go to do the shopping while their disabled relative sits in the car reading the paper, orange badges on display.

The person in the front of the fight to stop these misuses is the traffic warden. If the badge is not correctly positioned, then how on earth can he/she be expected to check if it is being correctly used?

These badges can only be legally used when the person named is leaving the vehicle, when the badge and correctly set clock are displayed in the prescribed manner, and where the bylaws for that authority concerned do not overrule the use of them in that location and you are not causing an obstruction.

Now let's please use these badges correctly, then there will be no more cases like Mr Hudson's, and there will be considerably more sympathy from the able-bodied for our privileged position. - JE Killick, The Disabled Motorists Federation, Chester-le-Street.

JONATHAN EDWARDS

I MUST protest at the disgraceful and derogatory headline above the photo of Jonathan Edwards (Echo, Aug 9) Flop, skip and jump. Jonathan Edwards is, and remains, world number one in this highly technical event.

He missed a gold medal by only half the width of a toe nail. For your paper to be so scathing about a brilliant performance is most unworthy of the traditions of journalism you claim to uphold.

We have come to expect such sensationalism from the tabloids, but The Northern Echo?

It is all the more irritating when one considers that the headline was penned by someone whose athletic ability probably extends no further than lifting a coffee cup. - Maurice Bartle, Richmond.

PUBLIC HEALTH

IN a week that saw warnings about the rise in the rat population caused by discarding food in the streets, it seems particularly ironic to see Darlington Council's latest cost cutting scheme.

In order to save money, all rubbish is to be deposited in bin liners on the kerb for collection.

Anyone who has lived in areas where this awful practice has been instituted will know that the bags are rapidly ripped apart by cats and stray dogs, foxes and, of course, rats.

We are told that this will save £200,000. Is it worth it to face the risks to our health?

If the council needs to save money then let's start with the good burghers themselves. Why do we need such a big council anyway? How much do their expenses add up to? I am sure it will be a lot more than the projected savings of the disgusting medieval practice that they seek to reintroduce. - Carl Watson, Darlington.