LAND QUERY: THERE have been a number of articles in The Northern Echo recently on the future of the old football ground at Feethams, with talk of selling the ground to a building company.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of the situation is that the land was purchased by public subscription to be held in perpetuity for the people of Darlington, and the two trustees are the cricket club president and the mayor of Darlington.

Who are the members of this Trust? Were they elected? If so, by whom?

Given that our forefathers purchased the land originally, I believe the people of Darlington are entitled to answers to these questions. - Name and address supplied

HOSPITAL APPOINTMENTS

I OFTEN wonder how much it costs the NHS because of people not turning up for appointments.

I have recently been discharged from a department of a hospital because I failed to turn up for appointments, appointments, I may add, I did not receive.

I rang several numbers before I reached the department making these appointments. I asked for copies of the letters, detailing times and dates so that I could take this up with the Post Office, but was told this could not be done. So now, through no fault of my own, I am one of those statistics.

I am in the process of trying to get back into the advisory service and then back to the consultant.

Now, when I read of people not turning up for appointments, I wonder if, like me, they did not receive them. - Mrs Kathleen Mudd, Bishop Auckland.

MOORS MUSIC

THE email database of our music venue, The Band Room on the North York Moors - which has been called 'England's tiniest major venue' - has crashed so can I ask readers interested in receiving news of our forthcoming shows - which feature country, rock, folk, roots and blues - to email us at tbr@romalo.freeserve.co.uk with their details.

The Band Room in Farndale (www.thebandroom.co.uk) is a little venue in one of England's most beautiful national parks. Although we wouldn't argue it looks like a corrugated iron shed from the outside, it is a fantastic place for music, with a magical atmosphere and superb acoustics by virtue of all the wood that was used when it was built for the local silver band in the 1920s.

Farndale is also a great place to holiday - with people spending weekends in self-catering cottages, hotels, pubs and farmhouse B&Bs, which we can advise about.

Among the highlights to date have been The Handsome Family, Laura Veirs, Kate Rusby, Mary Gauthier, Oh Susanna, Peter Rowan, Erin McKeown, Kim Richey, Balfa Toujours, Michael Hurley, Jesse Sykes and Hem - most of whom, incredible though it may seem, described The Band Room as their favourite venue on the whole of their European tours.

Our next concert, on July 2, features Moris Tepper, who has played guitar for Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, Frank Black and Polly Harvey. - Nigel Burnham, Mackeridge House, Farndale, Kirkbymoorside, York YO62 7LE. Phone:+44 (0)1751 432900.

EU DEBATE

LIKE the referendum on the North-East Assembly, those who voted No are misguided and simply did not understand, while those who voted Yes had the intellect to grasp what was on offer.

The suggestion that the political class will simply accept the EU constitution as dead is laughable - although serious.

Those who for many decades have despised the so-called aristocracy that ruled Britain should cast an eye towards our political elite and see if they can see any difference.

Look no further than our own area and see how they behave from councillor level up - we're still paying millions for the North-East Assembly; the people were simply wrong.

Can you point out the groundswell of opinion that wished to create the invisible place called Tees Valley? There was none, not from the people - how much did all that cost?

Teesside Airport, sorry Durham Tees Valley - people or rulers? The rulers strain with its new name while the people still call it Teesside.

How about the clowns who moved Durham's county borders - since when did County Durham start at Shildon or Royal Oak?

I wouldn't trust these people with the bairn's piggy bank. Funny sort of democracy, isn't it? - JimTague, Bishop Auckland Conservatives.

HIGH HEDGES

I SEE that we have got a new law which will allow councils to make people cut down high hedges and trees. The council will prosecute if people do not comply with this law.

Well, I would suggest that one council looks in its own backyard before it prosecutes anyone.

I live opposite the town recreation ground in Bishop Auckland and myself and my neighbours have appalling TV reception due to the height of the enormous trees in this park.

We have asked the council for the last three years to lop 30 feet off the top of the trees and they have refused, so perhaps this law will make a difference for us. - A Parkin, Bishop Auckland.

GUNS AND BULLETS

THE celebration of the anniversary of VE Day has taken place and the anniversary of VJ Day is on the horizon.

I took part in the Second World War and rejoiced with everyone when the conflict ended.

As the years have gone by, I have often been reminded that the millions who died in both wars gave their lives in the hope that that was the war to end all wars and the world would be at peace. The UN was formed for that reason.

And what has happened? More people have died in wars since 1947 than died during the Second World War.

Munitions factories all over the world work full time to produce guns and bullets, cannons and shells, tanks and fighter aircraft to drop bombs. All we are told is to keep the peace. And Britain is the second largest exporter of armaments.

How badly we have betrayed our glorious dead. I cannot celebrate the anniversaries of VE Day and VJ Day. I am too ashamed by what I have allowed to happen since 1947. - J Else, Marske-by-the-Sea.

LEST WE FORGET

DURING the Second World War in towns and villages across the UK near bomber airfields, the people on the ground could hear, night after night, the sound of the bombers taking off and circling and climbing to gain height to make formations and head off to their targets in occupied Europe.

Only those who flew as air crew in Bomber Command on the raids had any idea what it was like up there, facing the enemy searchlights, flak from the anti-aircraft guns and the German night fighters.

Not forgetting the cold, especially the rear gunner whose turret had open sections for the movement of the guns. At times the rear gunner sat there all the way to Italy and back.

This extract from a poem by Sir Noel Coward in 1944 describes the scene:

Lie in the dark and let them go

Theirs is a work you'll never know

Theirs is a debt you'll forever owe

Lie in the dark and listen.

During the Second World War more than 56,000 air crew were killed in action. They gave their tomorrow for our today. Lest we forget. - Lance Henderson, Durham.