Sir, - Bonfires were appropriately diagnosed as "a cure worse than the disease" (R Lewis, D&S letters Sept 1), particularly if they burn plastic.

All too often freshly cut (ie wet) 'green' waste (frequently mixed with household waste - paper, plastics, rubber compounds, etc) is burned, producing large, dense, volumes of low-temperature ground-level smoulder, lasting for hours and carried by the prevailing wind for up to a mile.

An alternative is to recycle 'green' waste in a compost heap (or use as a mulch), with woody material used as a base layer, or shredded.

Bonfire smoke averages 70 parts per million of cancer producing benzpyrene (cigarette smoke holds 0.2 parts per million), with other toxins, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, dioxins and particulates.

Dioxin is one of the most toxic substances ever made in a chemical laboratory and is created in bonfires simply by burning plastics and paper together; it is not only inhaled in the smoke but also precipitates into the soil where it is taken up into the food chain and consumed by humans where it concentrates In fatty tissues of the body.

We take up over 90pc of our dioxins in food. The US government Environmental Protection Agency has said dioxins are unsafe at any level.

Particulate matter below ten microns (PM10) is breathed in deep down into the linings of the lungs, there is a large amount of PM10 in smoke.

Particulates aggravate symptoms in asthmatics.

During the 1990s, asthma affected one in seven children, It has recently been reported as one in five children and one in seven adults. It is possible that well over 100 people die each year in the Tees Health area from PM10 related cardiovascular disorders.

Bonfire night in Middlesbrough in 1997 saw the pollution monitor for PM10 go literally off the scale; normally there is an annual average of 20 microgrammes per cubic metre on bonfire night it went up to 1000. The equipment cannot actually measure above 1000.

J D JACKSON

Thornaby Road,

Thornaby on Tees.

Regional taxation

Sir, - With reference to some of the comments made by the Conservative group leader on Stockton Council in your article "Regional government for NE 'a benefit'" (D&S, Sept 1), I would like to put the record straight.

He asks about extra rates to support regional government. He cannot have been listening to the speech I made in moving the debate.

Regional government will be taking over functions of central government, so the reduction in cost of central government will compensate for the extra costs at regional level, therefore no extra taxation. As no powers would be taken from local government, the level of council tax will not be affected either.

Nor would regional government lead to us "giving away our buildings and schools". As I have just said, nothing would be taken from local government.

He mentions "similar assemblies" in the past, but whilst there are many organisations in the region, there has never before been a directly elected regional assembly with real powers, making decisions at a more local level.

Different problems require different solutions and whoever is running the country, decisions that are right for the south east are not necessarily so for the north of England.

It is essential that your readers have a chance to consider the facts about this and not be misled by people who have not even listened during a debate.

Coun SUZANNE FLETCHER

Liberal Democrat group leader,

Stockton Borough Council.

Useful business

Sir, - I am alarmed to read (D&S, Sept 1) of the proposal to replace a well-established and much valued tyre and exhaust fitters in Yarm High Street with a three-storey wine bar, restaurant "night spot".

Yarm already enjoys five excellent restaurants, three of which have wine bars, six pubs and a handful of tea rooms. To add another wine bar and restaurant poses the danger of turning Yarm into a honeypot for diners at the expense of the services on which those of us who shop in Yarm have come to rely.

Derek Campbell's firm enjoys a well-deserved reputation for value and for efficiency. The owner is certainly no absentee landlord for he is to be found every day working at the garage.

I have found his advice first class and although there may be cheaper tyre fitters I know of no other which provides better value.

To be denied such a service to provide the doubtful attraction of another "night spot" is something which we shall come to regret.

B SCAIFE

Ingleby Barwick,

Stockton on Tees