Letters

YOUR report "Pressure mounts for police chief inquiry" (Echo, Aug 3) concerning the Chief Constable of Cleveland, Barry Shaw, attributes to the Association of Chief Police Officers certain comments about his position.

I would like to make it clear that Acpo does not comment on individual cases and, when contacted by your reporter, did not offer any view regarding Mr Shaw's position or express any indication or expectation of future developments which might affect him.

Indeed this would have been impossible as Acpo has no knowledge of the circumstances and holds no responsibilities in such matters. In particular it did not and could not have "confirmed" that it would "expect Chief Constable Shaw" to be suspended.

Instead, your reporter was referred to Cleveland Police and Cleveland Police Authority for comment. - Peter Shipley, Head of Information, Association of Chief Police Officers of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, London.

NHS

ONCE again we have had another set of proposals put forward by the Government to improve the NHS: 20,000 more nurses, 7,500 more consultants and 100 hospitals over the next ten years. Once again the re-launch was headed by the Darlington MP and Health Secretary, Alan Milburn.

It seems strange that only a few weeks prior to these proposals being announced, The Northern Echo reported that the Memorial Hospital in Alan Milburn's own Darlington constituency, (which has, as a non-executive member of its board, one of his closest allies, the Labour Leader of Darlington Borough Council John Williams), was looking to close wards and thus reduce specialist beds and specialist services, with little in the way of consultation with staff or patients - much to the annoyance of the consultants heading up these specialist departments.

I am sure that many staff within Darlington Memorial Hospital will be viewing these latest proposals with more than a little scepticism, as will many other NHS employees. - P Kane, Middleton in Teesdale.

THE function of independent advocacy is an important one, for all services.

We all learn from listening to constructive criticism. For example, voluntary organisations, which bring people together, and help to take up the cases of individuals who have received poor treatment, can also advocate collectively, so that services can improve their practices for people generally.

The NHS Plan emphasises patient advocacy (in schemes for individuals based in hospitals) and then places the voluntary sector in the private sector.

Individual patients will serve on a number of new panels (to "ensure" elderly people's services, or to "modernise" locally) but where are the collective representations of local community views?

Patients, and people, are not just "consumers" and "customers". Consultation with communities is rather more than "consumer feedback'. And voluntary is not private. The private sector exists to make profits, the voluntary sector exists to put people first. The "New NHS" needs, and belongs to, the public. - John Nicholson, Chief Executive, UK Public Health Association, Manchester.

EUROPE

SINCE the latest Eurobarometer survey shows very low and still falling support for not only the euro but also the entire business of EU membership (Echo, July 25), it is time the politicians listened to what the people of this country are telling them.

Let's have a referendum so the matter of our continued membership of the EU can be settled by the will of the people. Millions of pounds could be saved if campaigns for changing our currency are voted as not wanted. Hopefully our farming, fishing, steel and other industries could be rescued to thrive again if released from the strangulation of European legislation. - E A Moralee, Billingham.

FUEL PRICES

MOST people don't realise that the increase in fuel duties this year was the lowest for 11 years. In fact, of the 18p increase per litre over the last 16 months, only 2p is due to tax.

I can understand drivers' concerns about the cost of fuel, but the main reason for the rise since last year has been oil prices, which have risen from ten dollars per barrel to 30 dollars per barrel.

Also, let's not forget that it was the Tories who introduced the automatic escalator on fuel duty in the first place, and Labour which abolished it.

The Tories have no plans to cut tax. They are, as ever, misleading the British public. Their mismanagement of the British economy left our national finances in a complete mess. The annual borrowing was running at £28bn a year, national debt had doubled and we were paying out more in interest repayments than we spent on the whole school system in a year. - Jenny Swift, Darlington.

RELIGION

IAN Lamming writes (Echo, July 29) that "mainstream religions have their work cut out to appeal to the 21st Century masses".

Christianity will never appeal to the masses. Christianity is a challenge, a demand to alter, to change. A call to say "yes" when the alternatives are much more attractive - wealth, relationships, comfort and self-satisfaction, esteem and so on, and it is hard for those so cluttered by these ways of the world to try and sort it all out.

How often it is that the poor and the marginalised, who see Christian reality clearly and have joy and peace, realise that you cannot be more marginalised than by being nailed to a cross?

It matters not if, to the end of time, Christians remain in a minority because there will always be those who are Christian.

Two thousand years are evidence of that. The door is always open and the rewards are as much for now as the future, which awaits us all. - Councillor Tony Pelton, Catterick.