CIRCUS: I WISH to respond to the statements made by the woman who is allowing an animal circus on her land (Echo, Mar 23).

Circuses are cruel. This is why local councils do not allow them on their land.

Those who fight against animal abuse do so because they have spent their lives with animals and are therefore able to recognise their suffering.

Unfortunately some people have an inability to empathise with animals. Some choose not to because they make money as a result. Animal campaigners face an insurmountable task, as most suffering results from ignorance and greed.

The statement that animals do not suffer in circuses is rather disturbing.

Big cats spend their lives in cages, unable to perform any natural behaviour. They can be seen pacing up and down. This is known as box walking in horses and occurs as a result of being stabled for long periods of time.

Please do not visit animal circuses. It is unnecessary to humiliate animals for pleasure. - Lucy Crabtree, Darlington.

SPEED CAMERAS

CLEVELAND Police generated £2m from speed cameras. They have a budget deficit of £8m.

The solution is simple. Put out four times as many cameras.

Problem solved! - Peter Rafferty, Norton.

HOUSING

I HAVE often wondered if organising "boozie dos" in breweries is as easy as people imagine.

Certainly not for some of Hartlepool Council. I refer to the news that empty houses in the Dyke House area of town, that have been transferred to the new Hartlepool Housing group from Hartlepool Council, could be transferred back to the council, so we the council tax payers can pay for their demolition(Echo, Mar 24).

My understanding was that once these homes were transferred (early April) they were then the property and responsibility of Hartlepool Housing. We seem to be getting a bill twice, once to sell our properties - at a piddling £500 each - then take them back to pay for the demolition work, which I bet will cost a lot more than £500. - Geoff Lilley, Hartlepool.

TAXATION

THE Budget gives a stark warning that taxes will soar if Labour are given a third term.

Over the next five years their borrowing is going to reach £179bn, a staggering £7,100 for every household in the country.

Residents in Darlington have already suffered 60 tax rises since 1997 including higher taxes on petrol, pension funds taxed, mortgage tax relief abolished, married couples allowance abolished and stealth increases in stamp duty, and inflationary council tax rises.

This Budget paves the way for further tax rises if they were to win a third term so they can rob Peter to pay Paul.

The huge amount of money they borrow eventually has to be paid back and who will have to find the money to do this? We will - pensioners, businesses and hard working families.

Don't believe Gordon Brown is doing you any favours, he most certainly is not. - Charles Johnson, Darlington.

DARLINGTON FC

IT looks as though Darlington Football Club is on the brink of extinction.

It is not all doom and gloom if we did fold. We could follow the footsteps of Wimbledon, and start again further down the Football League pyramid, as Darlington Town or Darlington AFC.

That way, we would not be millions in debt. We could return to our spiritual home, Feethams, and start again from scratch.

If this does happen, then I would like to see David Hodgson remaining as coach, and becoming the new club's chairman.

With his experience and contacts, the new Darlington football club could be back in the League within five years, and with no huge debts.

I think that it is now impossible to save the Quakers. Let us all look to the future, and start again. - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

LIBYA

IN seeking to reward Colonel Gadaffi for turning away from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, Tony Blair must not allow British weapons to become part of the terror and destruction that Gadaffi continues to spread across his own continent.

Libya is one of Africa's most prolific and unscrupulous arms dealers, that has sold weapons that have fuelled some of the continent's worst conflicts.

Despite this record, Mr Blair is reportedly pushing for a lifting of the EU arms embargo so that British companies can once again sell weapons directly to Libya.

Unlike with terrorism or WMD, Colonel Gadaffi has shown no signs of cleaning up his act on arms exports. As recently as 2003, Gadaffi sold a plane full of weapons to indicted war criminal Charles Taylor of Liberia, in breach of the UN arms embargo.

The fact that the terror wreaked by Gadaffi's conventional weapons does not reach our shores, does not justify turning a blind eye to the reality of the suffering it creates.

Tony Blair must not allow Britain to become party to this terror by allowing British weapons sales to such a regime. - Andrea Hill, Oxfam Campaigns, North-East England.

IRAQ

TWELVE months ago some UK Government representatives came to my office in Brussels to brief me on the case for war in Iraq.

I was unconvinced by what they had to say then and a year on I am even more certain that Tony Blair made the wrong decision in supporting George Bush.

Nowhere have I seen an answer to the central question of whether Britain went to war on a flawed prospectus nor do I understand the unwillingness of the Government to allow a sufficiently wide-ranging inquiry to consider the judgement and competence of ministers.

I was hopeful that we could concentrate on local and European issues in June's elections but judging from my post bag I suspect that the Iraq war, as in the recent Spanish elections, will dominate people's thoughts when they come to vote. It looks increasingly like June's elections in Yorkshire and the Humber will be a referendum on Mr Blair. - Diana Wallis MEP, Liberal Democrat, Yorkshire and the Humber.