EDUCATION: Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council is at it again. This time it wants to cut costs by reducing administration and classroom staff pay and giving them more hours - undermining the education of local children.

Yet many people in Redcar and Cleveland still think their council is a Labour council.

However, this is not the case and has not been the case since May 2003, nearly 20 months ago.

Steve Kay, an Independent councillor in charge of education, has tried to cut youth services in Skelton and Brotton and is now hoping to cut the pay of administrative and classroom staff.

This comes as no surprise, given this Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Independent council's previous decisions, such as the increase in council tax by six per cent, the attempt to close Guisborough swimming baths and the cuts in council workers' pay, while executive Tory, Liberal and Independent councillors gave themselves pay rises. - Jim Tearney, Redcar.

HUNTING

THERE should be no confusion about the Hunting Act. There is no anomaly.

Defra is not backtracking and has not invented a new form of legal hunting (Echo, Dec 11).

Parliament's aim in passing the Hunting Act is to prevent cruelty - in this case the causing of unnecessary and intentional suffering to wild mammals through hunting with dogs.

Setting any number of dogs on a wild mammal will be prohibited from February 18, 2005. So deliberately using dogs to chase a wild mammal, with or without the intention of catching it, will be banned.

Chasing a wild mammal away from livestock or crops without the aid of a dog will continue to be legal after February 18, 2005.

And if a pet dog chases a wild mammal without human encouragement, its owner will not be using his dog to hunt and so will not be guilty of an offence.

There is nothing in the Act to require anyone to shoot a wild mammal that his dog runs after accidentally.

The law is clear and it is now for law-abiding people to abide by the law.

The Act does contain some exemptions, tightly drawn in order to protect animal welfare and to prevent abuse. The exemption for stalking and flushing out allows no more than two dogs to be used for hunting in some circumstances if specific conditions are met, including that the wild mammal is shot as soon as possible after it is flushed out. This will preclude a long chase, with its associated cruelty.

The recent Scottish case under which a huntsman was acquitted would not happen in England and Wales.

The Scottish law contains different exemptions, and permits the use of a pack of dogs to chase a fox to waiting guns. The Hunting Act will prohibit all such chasing in England and Wales. - Alun Michael MP, Rural Affairs Minister.

LAW AND ORDER

IN relation to Nick Griffin's arrest on Tuesday, I found it staggering how much police time was spent on this case and pondered how it can be justified.

BBC News read a statement from West Yorkshire Police expressing how a team of officers had worked on gathering evidence for "ten hours a day, five days a week" since July - five months ago.

Is this a reflection of the force's incompetence or slow work ethic, strategic timing (as suggested by Mr Griffin) or a reflection of how seriously the issue of racism is taken?

Regardless of the explanation, surely it was a serious drain on police time and resources?

The Northern Echo on Wednesday quotes Mr Griffin as saying that the CPS will later quietly drop these charges knowing they're not warranted.

If this prediction is correct, then anyone who has been mugged, burgled or suffered any kind of assault in West Yorkshire over the past few months should be pressing this police force for answers as to where their priorities lie with regard to tackling crime. - Stuart Neil, Crook.

WIND FARM

THREE hearty cheers to those stalwarts on the Durham City Council who said no to the desecration of part of the Prime Minister's constituency with a wind factory.

I beg Tony Blair to hold his head up high and embrace the real and shocking truth. There is no right place for a wind farm in Britain let alone in the County Palatine.

Why? Because there is overwhelming evidence from Denmark and Germany that reliance on high rise wind factories causes havoc with the stability of the grid, saves little or no emission of carbon dioxide and costs their consumers and their economy very dearly.

Sir, your administration has already responded to the writing on the economic wall by giving permission for our industries to vent 7.5 per cent more carbon dioxide into the air over the next three years. Please note that this is an amount equivalent to putting over five million extra cars on the road.

Surely, with the ball now firmly in your very local court, this is the opportunity to call for a moratorium on the building of any more wind farms until the British Wind Energy Association can prove all that it claims about these wind monsters. - Professor David Bellamy OBE, County Durham.

Darlington TOWN CENTRE

I AM a Darlingtonian born and bred and have yet to meet anyone who is in favour of getting rid of the Victorian features of our town centre.

Whilst most towns up and down the country are bringing in Victorian features, Darlington is getting rid. Surely the planners can pedestrianise the town centre incorporating these features?

It would be interesting to know just how many people are in favour of the plans the council has for our town centre. - Mrs J Heathwaite, Darlington.

CRAFTS

I AM writing about the sudden closure of the Dalesmade Centre at Watershed Mill in Settle.

I am disgusted to hear that the directors of Dalesmade have given no financial information or explanation why the local crafts people who have sold their work through the Dalesmade shop have only received a very small proportion of their due sales money.

It is common knowledge that, since the early 1990s, considerable sums of public money from several local councils have funded the Dalesmade scheme. This scheme was set up to offer marketing support in the form of sales opportunities, business development, training and advice for small craft businesses in the Yorkshire Dales.

If there is no money to pay the crafts people for their sales, where has their money gone?

What is left to show for all the public funding that went into the Dalesmade scheme?

It also appears that Dalesmade is not the only public funded scheme of this type to treat its members in this way. The Brigantia Craft Shop at Thornton le Dale, near Pickering, went into liquidation in January 2004 still owing several hundreds of pounds of members' sales money.

Questions should be asked. - Name and address supplied.