3/11/05

Part of the theme is to link the southern part of Co Durham to a Tees Valley "division".

Let me get this right. Bishop Auckland sits proudly on the southern bank of the River Wear, yet is geographically within the southern part of Co Durham, yet it might be linked with Tees Valley, an invisible place that exists only in the minds of the powers that control five local unitary authorities on what could be regarded, and still is by most people, as Teesside... plus Darlington.

OK, by stealth, signposts have been replaced, the name Tees Valley has been sneakily added, and, coming the other way, seemingly Durham's boundary has been moved, by quite a few miles.

Before the possibility of any changes, might I be in my rights to ask for sight of the Government legislation that introduced the new English area/county called Tees Valley?

Can you really create this, that and the other for a place that seemingly holds no legal status? - Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland Conservatives.

MEDICAL CENTRE

AT a recent meeting of the Area 2 Forum, members voiced their concerns about the lack of progress of the new medical centre programmed for Spennymoor.

I have requested that the centre should have basic X-ray/diagnostic facilities, which would benefit the elderly and the ambulance service by the reduction in travel time.

Four years ago we were informed that the Spennymoor Lift Programme would be given priority. However, at the last Spennymoor Area 1 Forum meeting, we were informed that Durham County Council had withdrawn the library from the scheme and that we were awaiting the results of a feasibility study.

I quote this because there is a lot of public confusion over progress of the new medical centre which, with modern equipment and facilities, would benefit the people of Spennymoor.

I did mention my concern at the meeting about the growth of private dentistry and that provision for a large slot of NHS dentistry should be provided within the proposed centre.

I have since learned that a dentist at Bishop Auckland has recently changed from NHS to private treatment and is recommending that clients take out private insurance costing £19 a month.

This is a charge that elderly and many on a low income can't afford. The public is already suffering from high gas/electric and council tax charges. - Councillor Ben Ord, Liberal Democrat, Spennymoor Ward, Sedgefield Borough Council.

COUNCIL PRAISE

WELL done Darlington Borough Council. You are returning your beautiful town centre back to the people to whom it belongs, the pedestrians.

How lovely your town will look when your plans are finished. How puzzled I am by the barrage of criticism your scheme is attracting when work has only just started.

I hope your critics take the trouble to write to the newspapers singing your praises when the scheme is finished and the town centre is flourishing.

Anyone walking around Darlington can see how much care has been taken to preserve the heritage of your town.

I applaud you for taking motor cars out of the town centre. If you want to see a beautiful town centre ruined by motor cars just travel to Yarm where you can't see the heritage for the traffic. - Trevor Gilpin, Yarm.

IT was with interest that I read about the 300 strong mass protest against Darlington Borough Council (Echo, Oct 15).

To read the articles, anyone would think the whole town was up in arms against the council.

I was there and I saw the 300 which, in reality, was much less than half that number. If you take away the children, who made up half of those who did attend, there were not many protestors.

If you divide that figure by the number of groups who were supposed to be present: the Hurworth School protestors, the White Horse protestors, taxi drivers, football stadium protestors, and the anti-town centre pedestrianisation protestors, you have at most 20 people with a particular gripe.

That's not many is it, out of town with a population of over 100,000? - S Robson, Darlington.

POPPY APPEAL

THE Mayor of Sunderland, Councillor Bill Stephenson, has bought the first poppy in aid of the British Legion's Appeal.

This started a fortnight of selling poppies by collectors at points throughout the region and by shops, stores, pubs and clubs putting out the collection boxes and tins.

The Legion spends over £50m every year on welfare assistance for ex-service people and their dependants, with over £20m raised through the Poppy Appeal.

Servicemen and women are still putting their lives and health on the line - and in Flanders' fields the poppies still blow. - Councillor Tom Martin, Chairman, Sunderland Branch, Royal British Legion.

SIMPLE ANSWERS

'A SMOG of confusion' (Echo Comment, Oct 27) is yet another show of the verbal frustration which we simple folk feel with our leaders.

I am sure we ordinary folk also share the paper's frustration when asking for an explanation into how Mr Geoff Gray's 17-year-old son managed to commit suicide by twice shooting himself in the head at Deepcut.

Mr Gray's question appears simple: "Tell us how our children died".

Our leaders may like to note that there are open-minded readers out here who quite like simple answers to simple questions and there are also those who will continue to press them for it - an open day for honesty, you might say.

Well done The Northern Echo and all genuine gatherers and purveyors of the truth. - C Simons, Bishop Auckland.

DARKER NIGHTS

I HAVE just altered my clock back an hour, reluctantly, but we have to do this (don't we?).

Surely this could be organised so that we have as much light as possible on winter nights.

We could alter the clock half an hour at the end of October then another half an hour at the end of November and reverse the process in February and March, making slightly less afternoon gloom to drive home in and less time for vandals and muggers to do their worst. - Fred Atkinson, Shincliffe.

NORTH TECHNOLOGY

RE 'Chinese call on British know-how' (Echo, Oct 28). The past association between Cleveland Bridge and the construction company Redpath Dorman Long would appear to be the origin of Dorman Long Technology.

The major enterprise, Dorman Long Iron and Steel Ltd, became part of British Steel, which eventually joined Hoogovens, the Dutch steelmaker, to become the Corus conglomerate still producing iron at Redcar and steel at the former Lackenby works. - WT Taylor, Middlesbrough.