Hear All Sides

RURAL ISSUES

ONCE again (HAS, Jul 7) Hugh Pender gives voice to his obvious and ill-formed dislike of all things rural and agricultural.

Regarding his comments on farm subsidies, a few facts might not come amiss.

Including subsidy payments, the average earnings of a hill farmer last year were just over £2,000, an arable farmer earned slightly over £8,000 and overall the average farm income was £5,200. The average farmer is 58 years of age and works 70 hours per week.

Take away subsidy payments and the end result is obvious - the fast-track to bankruptcy.

Perhaps Hugh has discovered a way to live without food. The rest of us need to eat and the final result of world farming without support would be eventual world starvation. - T Walton, Richmond.

GOOD SHOW

I WRITE to remind the residents of Darlington that this superb production by Chris Wallis is due in your town next week.

Having had the good fortune to see a really wonderful performance by the small cast at the York Grand Opera House last Wednesday, I must say,

never have I witnessed such an attentive audience, held spellbound with interest, throughout the two hours ten minutes of this unique presentation of Mary Norton's book, adapted by Charles Way and directed by Roger Haines.

In particular, young children watched and listened intently. It was really pleasant to be in the audience with my 16-year-old lad and two of his friends who all thoroughly enjoyed the show.

To all in Darlington, this is a chance for the whole family to see something very different and enjoyably unforgettable. - Jack Davie, Whitby.

SUMMER of '76

ONE of my memories of the summer of 1976 (Echo, Jul 5) is walking across Victoria Bridge towards Thornaby railway station to catch a train home, when a stranger engaged me in conversation and said how terrible it was that England had been bowled out for 76 in a test match against the West Indies.

I had heard the scores and agreed with him. I also remember walking along the promenade of a Northern seaside town and seeing a line of people in deck chairs enjoying the sunshine and remarking to my companion: "Britain swelters".

Another memory of seeing a North Sea oil rig structure being floated out to sea off the coast of Saltburn. The weather was lovely with the sea as flat and calm as a mill pond. - LD Wilson, Guisborough.

MY memory of the drought of 1976 (Echo, Jul 5) is quite literally being washed off Witton-le-Wear lido.

My late husband and I were running an Elddis caravan rally on the lido. We organised a social at Howden-le-Wear community centre and were enjoying this when the police arrived and told us all to return to the site as the River Wear was rapidly rising. It was 10.30pm as we struggled to remove vans in the dark with water sloshing everyone.

I distinctly remember pushing vans off soaked to the skin. Articles left outside probably ended up in Bishop Auckland.

However, no harm done to folks or vans and someone even wrote a poem about it. - JA Nicholson, Bishop Auckland.

CYCLE COMPLAINT

I AM heartily sick and tired of cyclists on pavements and not when roads are busy, mostly when the roads are virtually empty.

Here in Redcar they are to be seen frequently riding in the pedestrian precinct, High Street and sea front. At times even whole families ride on the sea front and the cheek of them, they expect us, the pedestrians, to move out of the way. Riding across traffic lights on pedestrian crossings is a great favourite.

This week I was nearly knocked down on the sea front by a young woman cyclists who was not even looking where she was going. On the same day a young male cyclists rode at speed up behind me near St Peter's Church, he also narrowly missed a young mother in front of me with a very young child in a push chair.

In the past I have had bruised legs and my clothes soiled, also a very bruised shoulder, all by cyclists on pavements.

If the council wants people to cycle on the pavement can we please have them divided up properly. At the moment police and traffic wardens see them but no on is ever stopped and cautioned.

With cyclists, roller blades, skateboards and electric buggys all on pavements the only safe place now to walk seems to be the road. - M Carter, Redcar.

SINGLE CURRENCY

EUROSCEPTICS realise that entry into the single currency will mean eventual full political and economic union and control from Brussels.

Europhiles accept this but will not say so publicly because they know that this would be unpopular with the general population.

A similar situation existed when the UK voted to join the Common Market. Then we were told it was purely a trading organisation. Had the truth been told then the UK would never have joined the EU. Thirty years on the EU has expanded into an over-ambitious and over-active government with no democratic accountability, integrity or competence.

The EU never submits a manifesto for endorsement by its citizens and as in Ireland recently, if a vote is not in favour, it ignores it and suggests another vote until the desired result is reached.

Denmark voted no to the euro yet I feel sure that the Danes will be pushed into another referendum a few years down the line. The same would happen in the UK. The main initiatives of the EU such as the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy are a disaster as is the handling of the euro by a moribund ECB. Craft and the misuse of funds is widespread.

Do we really want to tie our country into an organisation like this? If the truth is told this time before a referendum is held I think the vote would be no. - K Peacock, Hurworth Place.