15/12/05

The developer's environmental statement claims noise related "high levels of annoyance" during the day (based on 16 hour averages) will not affect any properties nearby and that only six additional properties will experience "moderate annoyance" levels.

Try telling that to the people of Hartburn, Eaglescliffe, Thornaby and Old Ingleby Barwick, Middleton One Row and Middleton St George residents.

In the airport's environmental statement published to accompany their planning application, the developers agree that there will be an increase in noise levels but claim that the "impact of increased night flying (based on eight hour averages) will be small". Try telling that to the above residents.

Twenty thousand night time flying units equates to either a take off or a landing 26 times per night.

From our recent research, it would seem that residents in Stockton have not been informed by the council of what the expansion of the airport will mean to them in terms of quality of life. We would urge those who have concerns to lobby their councillors for full and open information on these matters.

Copies of this non-technical summary can be obtained from the terminal building or can be downloaded www.durhamteesvalleyairport.com. Time is running out, the planning committee is scheduled to discuss the airport expansion in January. - J Bell, Radar Group, Middleton-St-George.

WIND FARMS

WHILE it is quite true that ugliness, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder and what suits one doesn't suit another, it is surely going right over the top to describe wind farms as "monstrosities that are blighting our countryside" as Derek Thornton does, (HAS, Dec 10).

Actually, some of us find them quite attractive. To walk directly underneath them, as you can with those along Hedley Hope Fell just outside Tow Law, is a surreal and almost other-worldly experience. Viewed from a distance, they often add charm and interest to vistas that would otherwise be quite featureless.

No, there are many things blighting our countryside: agro-chemicals, factory farming and building schemes conceived and executed with utter contempt for local ecosystems, rather than innocuous developments like wind farms. - Tony Kelly, Crook.

CELEBRITIES

IN reply to Gareth Clements (HAS, Dec 8), most religions have some sort of "all-highest" with unlimited love for its creatures, so we could argue that even the support that we give to our celebrities is small in comparison and thus fully in order.

Not many devoted fans of sport or pop music will admit that the real name of the game is money.

Pop songs say, for example, that "all you need is love" but this is hypocritical when sung by millionaire magnates with, say, ten cars, a huge staff, and heavily fortified mansions.

Rich celebrities can afford unlimited alcohol, drugs, partners, agents, etc, but what about the fate of their ordinary fans who are enticed into such expensive tastes but have already spent their money on the football shirts and CDs?

The most fatal downside to pop music or football is the mayhem in which people get crushed to death or football fans killed by hooligans. But greed and violence have always disfigured religion also - perhaps even more so. - E Turnbull, Gosforth.

MAN AND WILDLIFE

ISN'T man amazing?

He kills wildlife - birds, deer, kangaroo, and all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice, foxes, and dingoes - by the million in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed.

Then he kills domestic animals by the billion and eats them.

This in turn kills man by the million because eating all those animals leads to degenerate and fatal health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease and cancer.

So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for a cure for these diseases.

Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food he would eat is being used to fatten domestic animals.

Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year sends out (pointless and useless) cards while foolishly praying for "peace on earth". - AP Kirk, Stokesley.

LOGO CONCERN

RE Sedgefield Borough Council spending £72,000 having a new logo painted onto all of their vehicles (Echo, Dec 3). This will be the second time some of them have been repainted in less than 12 months.

In the late spring/early summer of 2005, the council engaged in an exercise to privatise all its housing stock, handing the stock over to a group called Sunderland Housing which, in turn, was to run the houses with a company called Sedgefield Housing.

The vote to sell the council tenants' homes was rejected by a large majority of the tenants but it would seem that Sedgefield Council had already prejudged the vote to be in their favour because, shortly after the vote had taken place, the council's housing maintenance vehicles appeared with a new logo, Sedgefield Housing, the company voted out by the tenants.

I wrote to the council and was told the logo was Sedgefield Borough Council copyright and had been used before.

We have already seen how money is being wasted this year with the painting of the vehicles so is this logo change to be paid for by wastage of more 2005 council tax or is it the start of wastage of the 2006 council tax? - Peter Dolan, Newton Aycliffe.

FLUORIDE

SOME more facts for T Kelly (HAS, Dec 10) and others doubting fluoride being a poison:

1. The EU and the World Health Organisation list fluoride as a poison. That is why most countries have banned or abandoned fluoridation.

2. Fluoride is widely used as a rat poison and is in pesticides.

3. The Clinical Handbook of Toxicity rates fluoride's toxicity as between lead and arsenic.

4. A Nobel Prize for chemistry was awarded for research into how fluoride poisons enzymes.

5. The Akron Poison Centre reported that a family-sized tube of toothpaste contains enough fluoride to kill a small child, if swallowed, and that death follows the ingestion of 16mgs of fluoride.

6. While fluoride occurs naturally in some rivers, the artificial fluoride used in fluoridation schemes is up to 25 times more toxic than natural fluoride.

7. Fluoride is in various foods, drinks, drugs, cigarettes etc. Over 50 per cent of fluoride ingested is not excreted but accumulates in the body. If fluoride really prevented tooth decay it would already be doing so. Adding more to drinking water and school milk is unnecessary and dangerous to health. - A Hall, (National Pure Water Association), Darlington.

SCHOOL CLOSURE DEBATE

POLARISED: I WOULD agree with your leader that the academy debate in Darlington has become dangerously polarised.

I have tried to follow the arguments from the beginning, however, and I don't think it is fair to suggest that both sides should bear equal responsibility for the poisonous exchanges.

From the beginning, it has been clear that a minority of Hurworth parents have been prepared to make outrageous and unpleasant statements in pursuit of their goals.

Their Internet message board has been littered with allegations against council employees. The more outlandish and ridiculous the claims, the better it has seemed.

For whatever reason, The Northern Echo has been prepared to turn a blind eye to these nasty undercurrents and has given the protestors apparently unlimited space to further their ends.

What is needed now is for the whole town to understand what is at stake here and get involved. We now know the agenda of the Hurworth campaigners is to close Eastbourne, but only take a fraction of the children as a result.

It may not only be the parents of Eastbourne who stand to lose if there is no comprehensive school serving the whole eastern side of the town. - Simon MacDonald, Darlington.

FREEDOM

I READ "Public service DVD launched" (Echo, Dec 9) to help all residents whose first language is not English, then council leader John Williams goes on to say "I believe that everyone has the right to access public services".

If this is so, why then is the council refusing to answer any of my questions under the Freedom of Information Act, despite the Information Commissioner stating it is wrong to do so.

Then, as I get nearer the truth, they simply throw another loop hole at me.

Then, to add insult to injury and belittle my intelligence, they decide to hold an internal investigation to appease me.

However, this review is to be carried out by the very people who are witholding that information .

So I was wondering if Mr Williams would answer my questions if I submitted them in a language other than English? - Ian White, Hurworth.

BROCHURE

I HAVE no intention of entering a tit-for-tat argument, but J Black's comments (HAS, Dec 10) cannot pass without comment. Contrary to his letter, in terms of information, all Share (Save Hurworth and Rural Education) have ever asked for is that the council put transparent and complete documentation in the public domain, to allow all interested parties to make informed decisions.

The "glossy brochure" to which I referred is a full colour booklet posted by DBC to all parents at Hurworth (and presumably Eastbourne) with an enclosed letter from Margaret Asquith.

This booklet does not provide the full and complete information needed for informed choice and is little more than a sales pitch for academies.

Without the availability of complete information this document, (and the zip file displays in the school foyers demanded by DBC) represents a huge waste of money, money better spent on educating our children.

Mr Black's reference to computers and whiteboards is undeserving of comment. - Ian Holme, Hurworth.