RIVER POWER

UNFORTUNATELY the suggestion of using our rivers to generate electricity put forward by WI Hodgson (HAS, May 23) is simply not possible.

In order for water to have enough force to drive electricity generators which produce power at the levels necessary in order to be sufficient and useful, it must have a great head or height above the water turbine.

Sadly, our rivers just do not have this feature.

Due to their areas of suitable mountainous terrain, countries such as Switzerland and Italy are able to generate much of their power from hydro electric installations.

It must be realised that the steam turbines used to drive the generators in most of our power stations are about six feet in diameter, rotate at up to 6,000 rpm and deliver a tremendous power output.

It is this level of equipment which is necessary to meet the power needs of this country. - J Routledge, Witton Gilbert.

DRUG TAKING

IN reply to Sharon Griffiths's article on drug use (Echo, May 25) I feel the article, although informative and much needed, contained an unbalanced view of drugs and their effects for young people.

Bluntly speaking, drug use will always be part of a free society and rarely will education that adopts prevention strategies work.

Leah Betts was the girl who symbolised the pernicious effects of what Ecstasy can do, yet sales continued to rise despite this 'moral panic' surrounding her death. Why? I think as long as you continue to prohibit young people taking drugs they will want to try them even more.

The evidence actually suggest that it isn't the drugs that cause the deaths, but more so what the drugs are cut with, and therefore it is the black market that kills, not the drugs.

This isn't to suggest it is OK to try or condone drug taking. What it does suggest though is that too many strategies are aimed at telling young people to not take drugs, when half of them already do. Further evidence suggests that drug use has become 'normalised' for young people and is as pernicious as any other risky behaviour they participate in, such as drinking alcohol.

Education on the effects of drugs need to recognise this and aim to promote better harm reduction practices rather than prevention altogether. - Darren Metcalfe, Darlington.

POP PICKERS

AS a teenager in the 1950s I was a regular listener to David Jacobs's programme Pick of the Pops (Echo, May 24).

The show was broadcast late on Sunday nights and featured all the new releases.

Elvis Presley was the sensation of the day and just one week after his All Shook Up was played on the programme the record had reached Number One in the charts.

Other favourites of mine at the time were Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by the Platters, It Doesn't Matter Anymore by Buddy Holly and Russ Conway's piano piece Side-Saddle.

All of the tunes I liked I heard on the radio, but when it came to buying records, I chose the songs of Frank Sinatra. - L D Wilson, Guisborough.

PLIGHT OF VICTIMS

IT comes as no surprise that Liberty is supporting the youth in Richmond who is challenging the anti-social behaviour law.

Liberty's logic often puts it at odds with the majority of people in society. Anti-social people are a blight on this country and Liberty would be better employed in fighting for the rights of those, often vulnerable, people who are daily tortured by out-of-control, lawless gangs of youths who abuse, assault and destroy.

I once met a tearful old lady wandering the streets one bitterly cold November evening. Every night she was driven out by a gang of youths who used her home as a drinking den.

By the time the police arrived they had gone. A week later I saw her again, even more distressed. I went to her home and there was a scene of total destruction. All her furniture was overturned, some of it smashed. Her pitiful belongings were strewn all over and her gas meter had been broken into.

Let's face it, Liberty thrives on finding loopholes in the law and is not interested in the lives of ordinary, vulnerable people.

If Liberty's members want to champion the hooligans who terrorise our country, invite them to live in their homes, move in next door to them. Fat chance, eh? - D Brearley, Middlesbrough.

PRISON SENTENCES

EVERY other day it seems there is a public outcry over heinous crimes which have only resulted in pathetic sentencing by out-of-touch judges. The latest in this dire catalogue of the unforgiveable is the case of a once well-respected police officer and barrister who had downloaded vile pornographic images of girls as young as ten months old - an unimaginable act to a decent-thinking citizen and which should have deserved a maximum sentence.

To my mind, life imprisonment, and meaning just that, is life. Instead, this pervert is led away to the cells, no doubt smiling smugly at his two years and eight months sentence. And he'll probably only serve half of that.

This is indeed not a case of the punishment fitting the crime. On top of all this the unspeakable man distributed nearly 500 images to other perverse members of a 1,300-strong paedophile ring.

This begs the question: has every kind of sex become acceptable in our permissive and sex-obsessed society?

In my opinion such people are as perverted and violent as members of the SS or the Gestapo. - Ken Jackson, Northallerton.

WILLOWBURN HOSPICE

HAVING read your article on St Cuthberts Hospice, I am amazed that you are unaware that there is already established a four bedroomed residential hospice in the North Durham/Derwentside area. This hospice is located near the village of Lanchester.

I have lived here for 17 years following my retirement and the hospice has been here all that time.

My wife died there nine years ago and I was very impressed with the care she received. There are two nurses on duty 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week, giving excellent care and attention to terminally-ill patients.

I have had several friends who have passed their last days at Willowburn Hospice and, on my visits, the hospice has been spotlessly clean and attendance to patients has been excellent.

There are thousands of people in North Durham and Derwentside who will agree with me. Willowburn Hospice survives on donations from the local people, e.g. sponsored walks, bike rides and quiz nights and support from local pubs like the Queen's Head, King's Head, Black Bull and Lanchester Social Club. - P Smith, Lanchester.

BIRDS BEWARE

I FEEL that I must write and register my protest and disgust at the person or persons who gave the go-ahead to the start of the Park and Ride project at the Sniperly roundabout near Durham City, right in the middle of the birds' nesting season.

They must not know very much about nature and her seasons. I wonder how many nests they have destroyed? - RW Hall, Esh.