THE MEDIA: IT is so pitifully symbolic of the British tabloid media that a woman, such as Faria Alam, should receive, according to reports, half a million pounds, for selling her story about having affairs with men in the public eye.

Yet almost at the same time such newspapers are printing stories on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, where millions of people will potentially die.

Is it really in the interests of the British public to hear about some sob story from a woman who would have been fully aware of the relationships both men in question were involved in?

Wouldn't this absurd amount of money be better spent saving people's lives, not helping somebody on the way to millionaire status for the sole reason of having slept with someone famous?

Enough is enough. This woman must think she has won the lottery and what for?

To the News of the World and the Mail on Sunday, in particular - start solving the bigger issues, not swelling some nobody's bank account! - Paul Featherstone, Bishop Auckland.

TAXI DRIVERS

CONGRATULATIONS once again to the taxi drivers on their recent win in court.

Why does the licensing authority like to create rules which are not reasonable and sometimes quite absurd and consequently waste so much money of the ratepayers of Darlington?

We have in recent times had the ridiculous assertion that red is not red, unless the council says it is red because we, the public can't tell if that red taxi is red.

There is the added burden of additional driving tests, because we the public need to be protected against those who have already passed the state driving test, like we the public, but who can't really drive well enough.

Now, we have the crazy court case of the tinted windows because the car manufacturers install unsafe tinted glass, which is perfectly safe for we the public in our cars, but quite unsafe when installed in a taxi. - John West, Darlington.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

DAVID Bishop (HAS, Aug 6) is correct that a regional assembly would be utterly inappropriate for the North-East.

It is impossible to see how an assembly could adequately represent the very different interests of, say, the people of Middlesbrough as well as those of the people in Alnwick.

Likewise, the concerns of the residents of upper Teesdale are necessarily not the same as those of the people in the centre of Newcastle.

The level of representation is another reason why the proposed assembly will not work - such a small number of elected representatives are bound to be remote from the electors for whom they are supposed to work.

Our existing local councils are much closer to the voters.

As the voters see what exactly it is that Mr Prescott proposes, they are increasingly expressing their opposition, and will be voting "No" in November.

We are not being offered "a say in our own destiny", just another expensive bureaucratic layer. - Judith Wallace, Chairman, North-East No Campaign, Sunderland.

RECENT reports have shown that the North-East is experiencing economic growth.

However, we remain the poor relation in comparison to other parts of the country. The North-East continues to demonstrate growth below the national average.

Surely, a regional assembly would offer us a real opportunity to close the economic divide in this country that has long persisted.

The south remains unchallenged in terms of attracting big business and the creation of a London Mayor, a Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly put us at a further disadvantage to the rest of Britain.

Indeed, a regional assembly would help the region attract more jobs and investment in an increasingly competitive business landscape.

Real powers and influence over skills, transport, small businesses, RDAs mean that an assembly can make a real difference to our region. - Bob Mawer, Washington.

ROAD SPENDING

IN the June issue of the Town Crier, Darlington councillor Nick Wallis was featured in an article regarding the £4.7m which was to be spent on Darlington's roads this year.

A couple of weeks later we read that the sum to be spent was £1.5m over, I believe, four years.

This is quite a difference and I believe the tax-paying public has a right to know the reasons for the discrepancy.

The roads in Darlington are, in the main, an absolute disgrace. Yarm, Haughton and Whessoe, main routes into town, give the impression of running on a bombed airstrip.

A number of roads in the West End of town have continuous undulations. In all, a sorry scene.

What has happened to the cross-town route from Faverdale to the A66, certain stretches due to open in 1996?

This is becoming more necessary due to the development of West Park as Woodland Road can hardly cope with the rush-hour traffic as things are now.

Darlington is a growing town and the council has developed some very commendable schemes but the aforementioned matters need to be addressed and I would challenge the highways department to answer the points raised. - JA Lynn, Darlington.

PUBLIC SERVICES

IF the motive behind the proposal to postpone retirement until age 70 is to save public money, I can think of far more effective ways of doing so.

For a start, why not cut out some of the massive amount of dead wood in the public sector itself?

I am not thinking of people like binmen, school teachers, librarians or some police officers, who on the whole do a difficult job well.

I am thinking of some of the staff in local authorities.

However, a sense of justice is absent from the public sector, as well as a sense of reality, so it is unlikely that my recommendation will be taken seriously. - T Kelly, Crook.

SMOKING

SO Mr Blair has decided to ban smoking in public places. Why does this Government continue to pass laws that they have no intention of enforcing?

I am not against people smoking if they want to. After all it is their funeral.

But I do object to the very many smokers who think that the whole world is their ash tray and they should be allowed to smoke wherever and whenever they want, oblivious of how if affects those around them.

Notable are the ones who sit right outside the entrances to hospitals directly under the no smoking signs where ambulances pull up with patients suffering from heart attacks, asthma and such like illnesses - complete with oxygen masks.

They seem to be particularly attracted to no smoking signs even though there are designated smoking areas close by. - M Green, Spennymoor.