28/09/05

During my holiday in Italy last month I posted several cards to family and friends - four weeks later and still no sign of them.

Give me the British postal service any day. And before you ask, no, I don't work for the GPO nor does any member of my family. - Katherine M Hopper, Coundon.

POLICING POLICY

THE fantasies of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, get more and more bizarre.

His latest idea of hiring retired soldiers as police gunmen and women is likely to make our cities into dangerous replicas of the Wild West. None of us will be safe.

When the coffins come home after a shoot up of some peaceful demonstration by petrol or pro-hunting protestors, perhaps we shall at last reflect that this country has been on the route to its own version of the Tiananmen Square Chinese massacre of unarmed local people.

For instance, one of my best photographs was of Trafalgar Square at dusk, with the floodlights of the fountains just switched on.

That peaceful scene, and others, got to the very last short-list in which I nearly won an exhibition commission. Who would dare to take night pictures or use a tripod now? No doubt any photographer would be shot dead on the grounds that the tripod "looked like a machine-gun in the dusk".

If we accept police and army terrorism against our own citizens the suicidal terrorists have won. But politicians and top law enforcers seem to get pleasure at the chance of meting out, without any trial or evidence, lengthy imprisonment or instant death. - E Turnbull, Gosforth.

GHOST TOWN

WE are Software Darlington, the computer shop in West Row and we feel that nothing has been done to help us as the row is now completely closed to traffic.

Without the buses it is very quiet and the town is like a ghost town along West Row and High Row. The council says it wants to get the south side of the town busier like the north side when pedestrianisation is completed.

But what will it do in the meantime to keep this side of the town busy?

We think many of the businesses will close.

We still have many older people confused about the buses. We are going to lose trade as people who used to wait for buses here for Catterick, Barnard Castle and Northallerton would browse in our shop and buy things. Now they have to go for the bus elsewhere.

People used to pull up to drop off their computers but with the road being closed off, what can they do now?

We also do the computer fairs and load and unload. These boxes are heavy and during the week if I need to bring something down to the shop from our units how can I carry them? I would like to invite someone from the council to come to try to unload for me.

Personally, I think the council has given a lot of thought to buses but no thought at all to how it will affect the businesses in the area concerned. - Audrey Ameen-Ali, Darlington.

AIRPORT'S NAME

I AM not surprised that the new name of Durham Tees Valley Airport is causing confusion amongst air travellers (Echo, Sep 20).

The airport is situated on the outskirts of Darlington, which is 25 miles south of Durham and the new moniker is just a foolish attempt by the local Labour councils to expand Tony Blair's home county.

To put a stop to this madness, I suggest that the airport is renamed Teesside Airport or it becomes known as Darlington Tees Valley Airport. At least that way people will know where it is. This grand little airport is based near the banks of the River Tees and not half an hour up the road on the shoulders of the River Wear.

The people of Darlington and Teesside want our local airport to be known with a local name and not one that has no relevance to our locality.

Darlington and Teesside are proud neighbours and we both have nothing in common with Durham, no matter what the men and women in suits in town halls think. - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

HOUSING TRANSFERS

I HAVE just received three booklets giving details of how tenants will, supposedly, benefit if Derwentside council houses are transferred to Derwentside Homes.

One booklet describes the additional services that will be available to older tenants, all at no cost. Among these are an expanded gardening service, provision of labour to put up shelves and change light bulbs etc, a home locator service, including informing utility service providers of the change of address, and the appointment of a specialist adviser for older people.

But if the transfer goes ahead, Derwentside Homes will not be able to call on the help of council tax payers. So are we expected to believe that all these things, plus many more for tenants across the board, will be possible without huge hikes in rents?

If this is the case, then considering the fact that Derwentside Homes is expecting to borrow £117m, which will obviously incur interest charges, either the board of directors will be miracle workers, or the inefficiency of Derwentside District Council is shown in its true light. - DC Elsom, Annfield Plain.

EUROPEAN UNION

THIS week we have seen a good example of the benefits of being in the European Union. The United Kingdom used the European Arrest Warrant procedure to have a suspected terrorist returned from Italy without going through cumbersome extradition proceedings.

The EAW is based on the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions. This means that a decision by an EU member state requiring the arrest and return of a person should be recognised and executed as quickly as possible.

The EAW was put on the statute books as part of the Extradition Act of 2003 after all the issues had been debated in Parliament.

After a warrant has been implemented the person must appear before magistrates within 48 hours. The suspect must be handed over within 90 days unless they choose not to appeal. Mr Osman's return was delayed by 35 days to allow the Italian police to complete their investigations.

The Bill enabled us to revise antiquated extradition laws and to meet the situation of a world where there is free movement and cheap travel. - Bill Morehead, Darlington.

GREAT NORTH RUN

AFTER completing my 13th run I think it is now becoming a farce.

Although it's in a good cause with many people running for charity - I raised money for kidney research - why do the fools, who obviously have not done any training, treat the 13-mile race as a joke?

The stupid ones start too far at the front, therefore before they have even completed just one mile, they are walking.

It's no fun trying to dodge them and weave between those who have stopped. I thought athletes had sense, but it appears a few thousand haven't. So just think about it next time. - JR Brant, Darlington.