I CONCUR with the views expressed by Allan Day and Peter Jeffries {HAS, June 25) and have been disappointed by the declining standards of some contributions to the letters page.

Many correspondents are simply submitting sanctimonious platitudes and appear to indulge in personalised attacks against other contributors.

This is even worse on your website. Here, they regularly converse with each other as mates on first name terms and sometimes resort to intemperate language.

Having been an avid reader of The Northern Echo for nearly 40 years, I am most favourably impressed by your campaigning style, broad spectrum of news, humorous missives from the Editor’s Chair and the emphasis on topicality of local and regional issues.

It is therefore as a friend of the Echo that I feel disappointed by the dominance of letters from a small group.

They undoubtedly have the right of free expression of their views (in moderation, I trust) but also carry responsibility for exercising restraint within the precincts of law and civic society.

Many residents of Darlington have expressed similar concerns to me and claimed that they “switch off “ when they read the names of frequent contributors in HAS.

Why do you give an overdose of oxygen of ego-boosting publicity to these individuals ?

Dr Abdul Jaleel, Darlington.