AFTER reading a recent article in The Northern Echo regarding carbon monoxide detectors, I feel I would like to clarify this, and, more importantly, allay any fears Durham City Council residents may have in this respect.

After waiting for some considerable time for the parts required for our detectors, they are now in the process of being fitted.

This process should be complete by the end of this week.

I would like to tell your readers that the alarms are not just "off the shelf alarms", but are directly linked to our City Care wardens, who are on call 24 hours a day.

The service these alarms provide is also above the minimum requirement. Our boilers are also serviced every 12 months. In the past five years, there have been no call-outs regarding carbon monoxide leaks. Any call-outs have been due to smoke alarms being activated.

The city care service here in Durham City is second to none and I know that the job - from first installation to the after care service - is first rate.

Councillor Les Thomson, Portfolio Holder for Communities, Durham City Council.

I WOULD like to express my gratitude to The Northern Echo and, more especially, your reporter Stuart Arnold for his story regarding Durham City Council's blunder in having no stock of carbon monoxide detectors after myself and Brandon resident Mrs Alma Carr brought this to the your attention.

I would also like to thank Honeywell SF Detection for supplying 100 detectors so quickly.

If it wasn't for your story making the council's awful blunder public knowledge I am sure that the ruling Liberal Democrats would still be sitting back waiting for replacement detectors to be delivered from China.

Once again, thank you so much.

Councillor Paul Taylor, Labour, Durham City Council.

WITH reference to your story about the carbon monoxide detectors which Durham City Council installed in some tenants' homes (Echo, Aug 7).

I wrote to you some weeks ago about the problem of the detectors and that lives could be at risk, plus that I was informed by an official of the council that there had been no parts for the detectors since at least January of this year.

I wonder what the council would have said if a death had happened. If it was a private landlord it would have come down on them like a ton of bricks.

J Wilson, Durham.