IF it had not been for George Reynolds, Darlington would not have a football team today.

It's his money and he should be able to do what he wants. Put yourself in his position and everybody would do the same thing. You can't go putting money into a project without getting a good return - you have got to have an income.

So let's all get behind George and the manager, and I am sure they will turn things round next season with the new stadium opening and then we will be the envy of the third division. - H Dinsdale, Darlington.

AS a supporter of the Quakers for many many years, I think we should not forget that the club would be out of football had it not been for George Reynolds.

We had a very poor season and to be honest, even with out best team out, we are around five or six short of a good side.

One of our biggest mistakes, in my opinion, was letting Marco Gabbiadini go when the team was getting 6,000 or 7,000 spectators every home game. Since then the managers have signed on a large number of players who are not good enough to make the Quakers a decent side.

Supporters must also realise that they are a lot of clubs in the lower divisions really struggling to survive financially this next season.

Obviously a large number of players will have to cut their demands for exorbitant wages plus bonuses.

I can understand a lot of supporters blaming George Reynolds but he wants the club to be on a safe footing and solvent. - Fred Wealands, Darlington.

EUROPE

SINCE the Budget every media outlet has not been slow to venture comment and opinion. Acres of newsprint and hours of TV and radio air time have been given over to analysis, counter recommendations and criticism of the Chancellor's proposals.

A lot has been written and said by experts as to the relative rights and wrongs. However, the stark omission of a critical fact of consequence amid all of this verbiage renders the whole process disingenuous and deliberately misleading.

Simply put, at present our Government has the freedom to make the economic, fiscal and monetary decisions that are required to control Britain's economy to suit the needs of Britain.

At no point in any TV or radio discussion was it mentioned that, if Britain was forced into the Eurozone, any analytical discussions would be totally pointless, worthless and irrelevant. Why?

Because if Britain were a member of the Eurozone then we as a nation would cease to be in control of our economy, this function will have been handed over to the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. Decisions as to spending on public services, taxation, interest rates etc will be imposed on us by the ECB and we will be powerless to act in our national self interest.

The democratic process will have effectively been killed.

The media can talk and write as much as they please and at present it may have an influence. Lock Britain into the nightmare scenario of the Eurozone and none of our elected puppets will be watching or listening to or reading about our complaints because there will be damn all they or we can do about it.

You still have choices. - Dave Pascoe, Press Officer, UK Independence Party, Teesside Branch.

SONG BIRDS

I ASSUME Aubrey Adamson (HAS, Apr 18) is either a conventional farmer or old-fashioned gamekeeper to whom all predatory birds are vermin. Or he may be a pigeon fancier whose £10,000 bird could be no more than a meal to a sparrowhawk, hence his hatred of sparrowhawks and a desire to see them exterminated.

But to suggest that it is sparrowhawks which are decimating the lesser birdlife is nothing more than hilarious illogicality because sparrowhawks have been around as long as sparrows.

It is an argument equivalent to that a quart can be got into a pint pot, the sparrowhawk being dependent for its existence on the sparrow or other alternative prey of the sort so that if there were too many sparrowhawks and too few prey some of those hawks would have to die of starvation until the balance became again sustainable.

Nor does it take a doctorate in ornithology to be able to say that all it takes is a little of what is often referred to as common sense which sometimes seems to be not all that common. - R Lewis, Birtley.

BRIDGE REPAIRS

WILLIS Collinson (HAS April 24 ) rightly points out that the Victorians achieved some outstanding feats of engineering, but the repair of Framwellgate Bridge wasn't one of them.

I used to have a Victorian builder's manual which was unequivocal on one point: iron and steel, it said, should never be used in masonry. The only permissible metals were bronze, copper and lead.

Sound advice. Think of all those houses now requiring remedial work for rusting cavity wall ties.

The Victorians knew their stuff all right, but maybe there were a few cowboys even in those days. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

COUNCIL FINANCES

RECENT receipt of the yearly council tax demand confirms that these are difficult times for people whose income is fixed or where annual increases are strictly limited to the RPI.

Not only are they now faced with a bill for local services that is higher than last year by approximately seven times the current rate of inflation, the chances are that their income from interest on cash savings will be less than a third of what is was eight or nine years ago.

My initial reaction is to criticise the local authorities, but a little research reveals that the true culprit is central government.

Over the last few years the burden of funding expenditure on local services has been redistributed to the detriment of council tax payers. Government grants have fallen far short of increases in expenditure and the shortfall has inevitably been passed to the householder in the form of indirect taxation.

Isn't it time that we had more integrity in this matter? All these pledges not to increase income tax mean nothing.

It matters not whether tax is collected in the form of direct or indirect taxes. The fact is that the burden of tax is going up at an alarming rate and more transparency by the Government would be welcome. - Michael McMinn, Durham.

TONY BENN

YOUR correspondent (HAS, Apr 24) inferred that Tony Benn was Minister of Power during the 1960s pit closure programme.

Here are the facts. Tony Benn was appointed as Minister of Power in 1969 and had only one year prior to Labour losing the election to reverse a policy that had continued since the late 1950s. However, closures decreased.

On the return of a Labour Government in 1974 he was appointed Secretary of State for Industry then in 1975 until 1979 he was Energy Secretary. During this period huge amounts of money were invested under the Government's Plan for Coal.

From 1962 Tony Benn was consistently elected by the Durham NUM lodges to speak at the Miners' Gala.

I suggest the writer consults the history books to find out who actually was Minister of Power when Tony Benn was Postmaster General in 1964 and from 1966 when he was Minister of Technology.

He will also find that prior to 1964 the Tories were in power. - Barry Chambers, Blackhall Rocks.