26/09/05

The extraordinary cost deprives people of a new bus station and adequate bus services. The council thinks Feethams is unsuitable for a new bus station, but the problems could be overcome with careful planning.

The council has ignored the pleas of those whose bus service is one an hour. Abbey Junior School is on the route of one such service. Elderly people live in flats in this area. They have paid £80 per annum for their concessionary pass.

Darlington is not 'a town on the move' but a town that has come to a full stop. - VM Smith, Darlington.

WALKING around Darlington, one can see that the Pedestrian Heart is well under way. Some barriers have been erected either stopping access or forcing traffic to make a particular turn. I looked for the road signs which are an essential for a Traffic Order coming into force but there were none except in Blackwellgate. Then the penny dropped: the barricades are there because there are no signs. I presume therefore that the council is unlawfully obstructing the highway and that the police will investigate. - John W Antill, Darlington.

HURWORTH ELECTION

AS THE Independent candidate in the Hurworth by-election, I must defend myself against one of the comments by the newly-elected Councillor Martin Swainston (HAS, Sept 22).

He stated that I was a single issue candidate standing against the school closure. This is not true. The only single issue I had was Hurworth. Unlike him, Hurworth is my home and I am sick of politicians fighting each other rather than fighting for the people they represent.

I wanted to give Hurworth a chance to have its own voice and not follow a political group which has policies that do not suit the village.

I have one further question. Why out of more than 2,800 residents did only 1,248 vote?

I am proud I gained a respectable 297 votes all on my own, without a big political machine working behind me, and I did not stoop to the standards of the other political groups by criticising the opposition.

Watch out for the next election which is only 18 months away. - Julie Jones, Hurworth.

SHOOTING

HELEN Shuker of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (HAS, Sept 19) writes that Labour's Rural Affairs Minister Jim Knight has given his backing to shooting, saying that the Government values its contribution to environmental protection and land management.

Can we not have the habitats without the killing of wildlife? On many shooting estates indiscriminate traps and snares are set which kill protected and innocent animals such as hedgehogs, badgers, deer and hares as well as cats and dogs. Is the Labour Rural Affairs Minister really giving his backing to all the cruelty and suffering that game shooting involves? - John Gill, Consett.

SKY BOWL

KEN Manton, the leader of Durham County Council, clams the sky bowl will be "a haunting image floating over Durham City". This means the cathedral, which is a world heritage building, will be subservient to it. This contradicts "The Concept" of the work where it states the two structures can be appreciated in their own right.

Mr Manton also states that the project would increase the profile of the city, county and region both nationally and internationally.

Someone ought to inform him that national and international games are played at Durham County cricket ground, St James' Park, Newcastle, the Stadium of Light, Sunderland, Middlesbrough Riverside and Gateshead Stadium, plus the greatest half marathon in the world is run annually from Newcastle to South Shields.

The county council is on cloud nine with this project and completely out of touch with the electorate. If it is ever constructed one can imagine a smartly dressed train driver in his modern Voyager Express viewing it from a distance and thinking how poor Geordie still can't escape from his 1926 Strike soup kitchen. - Thomas Conlon, Spennymoor.

FOOTBALL

D BREARLEY (HAS, Sept 21) raises all of the points that I mention to people when they talk football to me. The only reason that my words haven't appeared in print is because of my total lack of interest in the game. But I do have opinions about it.

Nobody is worth the money a top class player gets, except maybe the doctor who saved your kid's life. When I was young, good footballers were happy to turn out for maybe twice the working man's average wage in the days when a week's pay was ten quid. That meant that they didn't have to cope with the pressures of being rich before they had even finished growing up mentally.

If the game hadn't turned into a business, the likes of David Beckham would be over the moon to turn out for £500. - John Reynolds, Eldon.

RESIGNATION

THE response of LibDem council leader Fraser Reynolds to my resignation from Durham City Council's Flourishing Communities Fund Board makes me even more worried (Echo, Sept 22).

He says I have "chosen not to contribute to helping (my) own ward and others access funding from which they will benefit".

Does he mean that, if I had stayed on that board, I should have argued for grants to be made to my ward rather than elsewhere, regardless of need? Is that what the six LibDem Cabinet members on that eight-member board will be doing for their own wards?

By resigning from the board and remaining on the scrutiny panel, I believe I can best serve the interests of the whole community, including my own ward, by examining very closely what is done with this increasingly suspect fund. - Coun Mike Syer, Bowburn, Durham.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

THE leader of Newcastle City Council, Peter Arnold, has labelled the North-East Assembly "bureaucratic and invisible, and thoroughly boring, and is a waste of time and money".

Can we expect Mr Arnold to allow not one more penny to find its way to this unwanted and undemocratic project?

Or can we add Mr Arnold's name to that of his fellow LibDem, Chris Foote-Wood, who continues to insist the Assembly has a real purpose.

I believe the assembly to be an unlawful diversion of public funds by local councillors, which may well lead to action for recovery from their personal assets. - JimTague, Bishop Auckland Conservatives.

HOUSING

ANYONE who is considering buying a house on a new development should first research the area and then question their conscience if the housing be discovered to have been built at the expense of wildlife habitat or amenity open space, such as allotments or playing fields.

Question whether you would be happy for your dream home to have been the waking nightmare of others.

Think very carefully before you put your hard-earned money into the pockets of any companies that profit from misery and environmental destruction. - A Paciorek, Crook.