28/03/06

Just as previous suggestions that the review would cut services proved to be wrong, fare rises are not being planned as a result of the review into the Northern rail franchise.

The report stated a simple factual point: that fares on the Northern franchise are, on average, lower than for similar train operators.

Our policy on the fares we regulate is as it has been for a long time - average increases should be no more than one per cent above inflation. This remains the case.

It is up to the local train operator or PTEs if they wish to change fares we don't regulate. But, to set the record straight, there is no reason for them to do so because of this review.

The £2.4bn support for rail services in the North is not being changed.

These are good times for rail passengers. Train reliability has improved and there has been record investment in rolling stock.

For instance, Trans-Pennine Express will deliver investment of over £250m, including an entire new fleet of over 50 trains, which are already coming into service. - Derek Twigg MP, Rail Minister.

WORKING ANIMALS

FOLLOWING your photograph of the Duchess of Cornwall feeding a donkey at the Brooke clinic in Cairo, readers may like to know that there is an active Brooke Supporters Group in the North-East.

Brooke's work is reflected in its motto: "Healthy working animals for the world's poorest communities".

For every horse, donkey or mule that Brooke helps, an average of six people (or as many as 20 in some areas) benefit because extended families rely on the income generated through one working animal.

After last year's earthquake in Pakistan, Brooke's mobile clinics treated over 34,000 injured animals, the charity collaborated in building more than 300 winter proof shelters for poor communities and vaccinating over 13,000 livestock and it provided a 40-strong donkey train to carry aid to areas cut off by road, even giving urgent medical assistance to 3,000 people unable to reach a doctor.

Work continues so that families reliant on their animals for their only income can rebuild their devastated lives.

Meanwhile, around the world, Brooke mobile units and clinics concentrate on support and training for owners because 80 per cent of working equines' ailments and injuries are caused, not by deliberate cruelty, but by ignorance of modern animal husbandry methods and poverty.

If readers would like to know more about Brooke's wonderful work they can contact the local supporters' group chairman on 0191-384 3699. - Esther Ashby, Durham City.

SMOKING BAN

THE SMOKING debate (HAS, Mar 22) and the optimistic nonsense that comes from correspondents can't hide the fact that smokers are being used in the game of imposing more interference and downright arrogance on one section of the nation.

I am not a smoker and have no wish to do so but I am not prepared to blame smokers for all the ills of our society.

If the two correspondents own or drive a car then a lot of people are picking up the fumes and stink from vehicles, especially the old bangers that just about have you keeling over with the rubbish they put into their lungs.

Whether smoking is a dirty, dangerous habit - that is not for me to judge. That has more to do with the smokers themselves. As for the entrance of our hospitals being in such a mess, it is time these silly exaggerated statements were put into context.

The correspondents are simply expressing a blind prejudice that insults the intelligence.

Unless the society we live in is prepared to ban the sale of tobacco and ban smoking outright, then the ban imposed at the moment is an insult and only proves that the arrogant are once again getting their way. - John Young, Crook.

TOWN CRIER

WITH the Town Crier being in the news so much at present, it might be fitting to reprint a letter of mine that appeared in The Northern Echo on November 10, 2005. I quote:

"Once again through my letterbox, in company with other junk mail, comes that wonderful piece of Darlington Council propaganda, the Town Crier, in which we are told what a magnificent job the council is doing for us - with smiling John Williams telling us how fortunate we are to have such a caring council looking after our interests."

It is strange that so many people who write to The Northern Echo don't seem to realise this.

Perhaps the name of this monthly magazine should be changed to the Trumpet Blower (as in blowing one's own).

Certainly it could never be called The Listener. - LT Atkin, Darlington.

POLITICAL LOANS

UNDER duress the Labour Party has revealed the names of donors who have made substantial loans around the time of the last election.

You would have thought the Tories would have done the same under the leadership of the wise-cracking Mr Cameron.

Not so. Let's see how the genial David can laugh his way out of this one. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

CAR CRIME

DARLINGTON Borough Council frequently boasts about the reduction in car crime in the town centre and this can only be a good thing.

But reading News in Brief columns it is alarming to learn about the many cases of car crime away from the town centre.

For example, over one weekend (Echo, Mar 14) five cars were stolen and a further seven raided.

Having driven those responsible for all this crime from the centre of town, when is the council going to turn its attention to security in the rest of the borough?

It is no use bragging about reducing crime in the small town centre area and turning a blind eye to what is going on elsewhere.

To the outsider the overall crime rate is likely to be of greater interest than security measures in a very limited area. - RK Bradley, Darlington.

NHS

I HAVE read in The Northern Echo that the National Health Service is £4bn in debt.

However, when I questioned Alan Milburn about this at a recent Labour Party meeting in Darlington, I found out the startling news that it is only southern England which is inefficient at running their NHS.

So why does the northern half of England, which is very efficient at running both the NHS and PCTs, have to suffer cuts to subsidise southern England, which cannot manage its financial affairs?

I don't blame Hurworth School for applying for Foundation status and I am only too pleased that it has been able to keep its school, but the NHS northern regions ought to also apply for Foundation status to make sure we can care for people in our region without having to make cuts in our services to subsidise the south.

I don't blame Darlington PCT for wanting to keep its independence as it has just won an award for being the best PCT in the country. - Margaret A Greenhalgh, Darlington.