26/11/05

As a former police firearms officer, I am aware of the training required to achieve the level of expertise needed to qualify to carry a firearm and I believe that is one of the points not being considered in this discussion.

Not every police officer has the ability to reach the required standard to handle a gun, in a similar way that not every officer can achieve advanced driving standard. In other words, horses for courses.

What then do we do - lower the standard to allow every officer access to firearms? Of course that would be nonsense and could cause more problems than it would solve.

The answer is to increase the number of trained officers, currently only five per cent, to a level more in line with the increasing use of firearms across the country without lowering standards. - Brian Jones, Darlington.

WOMEN DRIVERS

ARE the facts we hear about women drivers being better than men somewhat misleading?

Insurance companies are offering cheaper insurance to women because they have fewer accidents and are better drivers than men.

Well, that does get them more customers but are women better drivers? Could it be that women drive a lot fewer miles and far less distance than men?

Some men drive the whole of the working day, many miles and some women drive for ten minutes to take their children to school less that a mile away. So guess who will have fewer accidents? - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

BUILDING SITES

EVERY so often a letter or story appears in the local papers about opencast sites, like recently at Gibside Estate by the Jolly Drovers, Leadgate.

Why do local councillors object on the grounds of them being noisy and dusty places and say they do not produce local jobs, when they find it quite all right to allow building site after building site to pop up all over the area, which produce the same noise and dust made by the same type of trucks and machines?

Also, a lot of builders on these sites are not local either.

I noticed last week the road at Delves Lane, Consett, was thick with mud for a good 200 yards through lorries leaving the site.

When I worked on opencast sites in the past, lorries leaving a site had to go through a wheel wash before entering a public road and dust was kept to a minimum through water bowsers on site.

But these building sites seem to be getting away with it. Is this because the end product produces thousands of pounds in extra taxes and not coal? - D Slavin, Consett.

VIDEO REFS

I AM dismayed that what I perceived to be a perfectly good claim for a penalty by Newcastle against Chelsea was not given.

This tends to happen when the top clubs, Man United, for instance, play at home.

What exactly are the referees frightened of, I wonder?

The case for another referee sitting in front of a video screen and giving his verdict on fouls to the field ref, via appropriate technology, is getting more urgent by the day.

A bad decision can spoil a match, costing a club dear. - Fred M Atkinson, Shincliffe.

EGYPTIAN REUNION

SINCE my retirement I have organised reunion visits to the canal zone area in Egypt.

I was called up for national service in 1954 and was posted to Egypt, working in GHQ Fayid canal zone then moved on to Cyprus.

I organise return visits to the Fayid/Ismailia area every September and next year we will be travelling to that area for 12 days - September 12-23 - taking in Cairo, Moascar, Ismailia, Tel-el-Kebir and staying at a hotel on the Great Bitter Lakes, Fayid.

These visits are limited to 50 places (20 doubles and ten singles).

The average age is 65 to 70 and during the 12-day stay there is a chance to visit the Pyramids, Sphynx and Egyptian Museum.

We have arranged over 20 of these group visits and further details and costs will be provided for anyone who is interested. - Alf Avison, PO Box 99, Spalding, Lincs PE11 3NS.

PHEASANT PLEA

RICHARD Dodd of the Countryside Alliance (HAS, Nov 21) says that game is wild, natural and free range.

In a report by the animal welfare organisation, Animal Aid, it is said that "by the mid-1990s, 85 per cent of the 21 million game birds shot annually were pheasants. Thus the total number of pheasants shot exceeded the then estimated wild bird population of 3.1 million by 600 per cent. This excess was entirely captive bred".

The report also says: "Despite industry claims that current game production benefits wildlife, populations of many farmland birds, including the once abundant grey partridge, have declined up to 80 per cent. The pheasant too, may now be destined for extinction as a truly wild bird."

The report published in September 2000 also refers to numbers of game birds shot but not killed outright - the so-called crippling rate. Animal Aid estimate "a crippled bird total of around 12 million per year when it was estimated that 36 million pheasant were killed".

The report also says "that up to 4.5 million mammals and birds of prey are sacrificed each year on the altar of game bird management".

Badgers, deer and other wildlife have horrific deaths in gamekeepers' snares. Why do these millions of captive bred pheasant have to be shot if it is not for the so-called sport of doing so? - John Gill, Consett.

VILLAGE GREEN

YOUR correspondent, WH Jarvis, is mistaken in thinking it was Durham County Council which fenced off a grassed area of land at the rear of Falkous Terrace and Newton Street in Witton Gilbert (HAS Nov 24).

It was Durham City Council. - Andrew North, Deputy Chief Executive (Corporate Services), Durham County Council.

HUNTING

THIS letter is in response to the regional director of the Countryside Alliance's latest attempt to discredit hunt monitors and animal welfare campaigners (HAS, Nov 9).

Have the Countryside Alliance and pro hunt extremists forgotten that 50,000 of them signed a declaration and openly pledged to break the law? What are we to do, stand back and let them continue to kill our wildlife in the name of pest control?

Animal welfare campaigners have worked for 80 years to get hunting banned, so, yes, we will continue to monitor hunt activities.

Since the hunting ban was announced in November 2004, Hunt Watch and other organisations have had a large number of reports from their monitors of an increase of intimidation, threats and violence from pro hunt thugs.

Hunts are not there to provide a service to farmers regarding pest control; they are there for the thrill of the chase. This is why over 50 hunts have adopted to hunting with a bird of prey. Contrary to what the Alliance alleges, hunt monitors are not wasting police time but only reporting what we believe to be breaches of the Hunting Act. To join Hunt Watch or to know more about their work, please see www.huntwatch.info - Andrea Hill, Hunt Watch, PO Box 3089, Norwich, Norfolk.