Sir, - I was most interested to read your leading article "Toothless Lapdogs" (D&S, Nov 24), about the proposed closure of Community Health Councils, which are independent, in favour of Patient Advocacy and Liaison Services, which would be located within hospitals. My own experience renders me deeply opposed to this move.

For three years I served as a non-executive director on the board of the South West Durham mental health NHS trust, based at Winterton hospital, Sedgefield. Throughout that period I was the board member with particular responsibility for the handling of complaints, and I made a point of working with the Bishop Auckland CHC, rather than in opposition to it.

Our object at the hospital was to learn from the complaints that the CHC brought to us, to handle them in as constructive a way as possible and to build good practice accordingly. The complaints were, in fact, a really vital tool for informing us how improvements in the service might be made.

I am, however, in absolutely no doubt that some of the complaints we handled would never have come to us without the existence of the CHC. Valerie Bryden and her team were, rightly, perceived by the complainants to be genuinely independent, something that will never be the case with the proposed PALS.

One of the grievances that we handled was so deeply felt that it had taken the ex-patient many years to pluck up the courage to complain, and I am quite certain that he would not have felt able to do so even then, without the CHC's support. As a result of hearing his complaint, however, we were able to give him such reassurance that he subsequently became a most valued member of the voluntary team of patient visitors. Had there only been an in-hospital body, along the proposed PALS lines, to which he could complain, we would never have heard from him - and that would have been a pity.

There are two important points here. Firstly, people should not imagine that hospitals have no internal advocacy or complaint handling services at present. All the hospitals I know of do. But secondly, your leader is absolutely right, the CHCs are independent and they have teeth. There are moments when patients need to know that.

CAROLINE PEACOCK

Hamsterley,

Bishop Auckland.

Tired arguments

Sir, - It is a pity that Gordon French's reply (D&S, Nov 24) to my original letter only succeeded in repeating the tired excuse of "countryside management" to justify the killing of animals for pleasure.

As a father and teacher I recognise that young children have a great sense of morality yet the blood-sports lobby always give the same old political, class or countryside-welfare excuses for their actions, which children do not comprehend (and why should they).

Let's not be side-tracked by tales of the countryside being turned into "prairies" and vermin overrunning the UK. As adults it is our duty to foster the innate sense of what is right and wrong that children possess and not continue to peddle the same old prejudices and rhetoric for something that is morally indefensible.

M LAWN

Oaktree Drive,

Northallerton.

False economy

Sir, - The message that the villagers of Brompton wish to communicate to the county council and River Wiske drainage authority, is that the recent flooding in the village is preventable, if the will and the financial way are found. It is no longer a moral or economic option to leave the school, businesses and the villagers of Brompton unprotected. The authorities must draw up plans immediately and either attract some part of the government's announced £58m relief fund or precept for the rates to fund the above.

The economic logic for flood prevention is that the cost of this flood alone to insurance companies, businesses, residents and the county council itself, for damage to the school, is about £3m.

The estimated cost of implementing the 1979 report's proposals is less than £1m. Any future flooding makes the mathematics even more compelling. The moral reason why action is owed to the village is that the council failed to implement the 1979 recommendations on flood relief and by so doing have made themselves liable for the blame for the flooding on this and any future occasion,

For Brompton it is inconceivable that the council will leave villages like themselves unprotected in the future. Did Brompton and North Yorkshire win the Battle of the Standard in the 12th century to lose a battle to water in the 21st?

The problem is soluble, but only the council and River Wiske authorities have it in their power to do the right things, namely to improve the flow of water out of the village, and to restrict the flow of water in. A new bridge at Station Road, to enlarge the flow of water out, and a restricting or holding scheme upriver of the village to hold water up on unpopulated agricultural land, would solve all conceivable future problems.

DR JOHN GIBBINS

Water End,

Brompton,

Northallerton.

Hobby-horse

Sir, - Referring to your report (D&S Times November 17), "Sowerby members quite ashamed at tone of joint meeting with Thirsk councillors", perhaps they should feel more ashamed of their bare-faced attempts to dump the debt for their hobby-horse annexe at the town hall on to the electorate of Sowerby, a large proportion of which consists of pensioners counting their pennies.

Coun Robson's nave attempts to scale down the actual cost of building a new town hall annexe through increasing the parish precept for next year by "only" 10pc (which will be carried forward for a number of foreseeable years and increase with interest rates), is a less intelligent attempt to hide the final cost of this dubious project from the Sowerby council tax payers.

OLLY ANDRLA

South Terrace,

Sowerby,

Thirsk.