WIND FARM: THE proposed wind farm at the Stang Forest, near Barnard Castle, would, in my opinion, be desecration of the countryside bordering on criminal irresponsibility and I object most strongly to this.

I also object to the further development of wind turbines for the production of electricity as outlined in the renewable energy proposals for the region.

I believe wind turbines are an unacceptable intrusion on the landscape and they do not produce economical or useful quantities of electricity. Many people living in the vicinity of wind turbines have found noise from them unacceptable.

Wind turbines can't be used as an alternative to existing forms of power generation due to the lack of consistency of the wind force needed to drive them. When the wind is suitable for the wind turbines to operate, conventional power stations can reduce production but must still be operated, making them less efficient and more costly to run without any reduction in greenhouse gasses.

Denmark and Germany have found wind turbines can't be relied on to produce a regular supply. Since the Danish government cut subsidies for wind power, no new land-based wind turbines have been built and plans for three large off-shore wind farms have been put on hold.

We must learn from this, not blindly follow because it is easy and we can do so.

To achieve targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases far more research must be carried out on other, less intrusive, alternative forms of energy production.

Many highly respected bodies and many people throughout the country are against the development of wind turbines. They must not be ignored, as is usually the case. - T Pattinson, Stanley.

RUGBY WORLD CUP

I HAVE long since realised that we live in an age where TV soaps and their stars seem to have unlimited influence on the viewing public.

However, even I was surprised at the end of the Rugby World Cup when the players' medals were dished out by 'Norris' of Coronation Street. He's never even struck me as a rugger fan. - Martin Birtle, Stockton.

PRESIDENT BUSH

RECENT contributions to HAS show how the Blair/Bush coalition has polarised public opinion.

In all this there are matters arising which are most disturbing. One gets the impression that we are gradually moving to a police state run by a single political party.

Tony Blair's policy of emasculating the House of Lords so that there are no curbs on his ambitions for a single-party state is a step towards dictatorship. The abolition of trial by jury removes a significant freedom which has been cherished for generations.

President Bush's visit was politically motivated: to boost his standing in America in the run up to elections and to attempt to reinforce Mr Blair's dubious popularity at home.

These two are arrogant and driven by self-interest. A dangerous mix. Of course something needs doing to curb fanatical terrorism, but fanatical measures are not the answer.

Messrs Bush and Blair must ask themselves seriously why reaction to their policies of forcing the rest of the world to dance to their tune has produced more violence than it has eradicated. The invasion of Iraq has increased the terrorist threat: they failed to see this possibility before they embarked on false pretences on this course.

My fear now is that they will use the terrorist card to further their policy of world domination. - RK Bradley, Darlington.

IF the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who were raped, tortured, mutilated and murdered by the Saddam Hussein regime could have the choice, would they be cheering the so-called peace protestors, or would they be wishing to their god that President Bush and Tony Blair had been in power during the Gulf War? - Stephen Feaster, Chairman, Ryedale Branch UK, Independence Party.

Teesside AIRPORT

WELL, if there had been any doubt as to the possible name change for Teesside Airport, I think that this debate was easily settled last Friday with the visit of President Bush.

Now everyone has heard of and knows exactly where Teesside Airport is, and with over £1m worth of free publicity gained from all the press and TV coverage, this can have benefited not only the airport but also the area as a whole.

It is almost 40 years since the airport took on the name Teesside and, in that time, has built up a good reputation that has now been greatly enhanced with the recent visit. - MB Lee, Darlington.

SMOKING

MR McCormack (HAS, Nov 20) casts doubts over my estimates regarding deaths due to smoking and passive smoking.

The statistics are there, and thousands are dying in this country every year.

Regarding the paragraph on pubs in the 1940s: "In most cases you couldn't see the end of the bar for tobacco smoke, yet a lot of the customers spent seven nights every week there and somehow managed to live to their seventies and even longer".

My recollections of the pubs in the early 1940s were that they were only opened for a couple of hours a day at the most, all had notices outside with the two-hour time written on, and no beer or spirits were available after that.

He is quite correct however in the paragraph about the modern pushchair, in which vulnerable babies are situated at the level of the exhaust pipes of passing traffic as they wait at the kerbside for the road to clear and are forced to breathe in poisonous fumes. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

HEALTH SERVICE

WHEN the Conservatives replaced Area Health Authorities with Hospital Trusts in the 1980s, many people were opposed to the change.

It was said that privatisation and a two-tier NHS would result.

This has turned out not to be the case, but today the same things are being said with regard to the Government's proposal for foundation hospitals.

I believe these doubters are mistaken. - LD Wilson, Guisborough.

IMMIGRATION

LEFTIES like C T Riley make me sick (HAS, Nov 13). They have been trying to demoralise the English people for as long as I can remember.

Never once have I heard them say a good word about us, and Riley's last two letters bear this out. In one he called us mongrels, as if we are a pack of dogs.

In his latest letter he must have dipped his pen in vitriol, judging by his remarks.

His letter amounts to virulent racism against English people.

People have protested about the number of immigrants coming into England because it is too small to absorb them; they are coming in such numbers we have been told we will be outnumbered in 50 years' time; a fact most people do not support because we want our own homeland. There are only 50 million English, an easily outnumbered amount.

A nation which behaves as we are doing will inevitably become extinct. Is this what the Lefties really want? - P Smith, Hartlepool.