CYCLISTS: IN reply to Christie Sproat, concerning cyclists riding on footpaths, if she looks into the Highway Code she will see that cyclists riding on footpaths can be fined £500.

It is up to the police to enforce the law. People who ride on footpaths give the genuine cyclists a bad name.

- V Day, Bishop Auckland.

PRIME MINISTER

WHEN Mr Blair's watch appears on his live television interviews, I feel that I should go round the house to change the clocks to any other time than his. So unreliable is the Prime Minister's spin that I wonder whether even the watch that he wears is his own or whether it is something special concocted just for that broadcast by his inevitable spin doctors.

This is why, as far as I am concerned, we may just as well skip the coming Butler Report on Iraq. The Hutton Report was a ludicrous farce surpassing even the excesses of Yes, Minister.

Why should broadcasting chiefs and journalists be forced into resigning in response to such obviously biased rubbish? - E Turnbull, Gosforth.

I FIND it admirable the way Tony Blair handles things in his monthly meetings with the press. He is having to respond to a seemingly endless succession of crises and scandals.

The latest of these, of course, are Clare Short's comments that British Intelligence tapped the telephone of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan prior to the war with Iraq. Tony Blair is justifiably angry at these remarks. From what we have heard, telephone-tapping is commonplace in the world of secret intelligence. One comes to expect it.

Once a member of Tony Blair's Cabinet, Clare Short today seems to be doing all she can to discredit the Prime Minister. - LD Wilson, Guisborough.

POLICE

WHEN Jim Tague made the comment (HAS, Mar 1) about an extra tenner to boost the police force, he doesn't speak for everyone.

I drove over Newton Gap viaduct coming from Crook to Bishop Auckland a couple of weeks ago where a police van was parked with two speed cameras poking out of the rear, which I assumed would be manned by two police officers.

Fifty yards in one direction were two motorcycle policemen and 50 yards in the other direction, was a patrol car with two police officers in it.

Six police officers to catch motorists seems a bit excessive as there are no speed limits from leaving Howden-le-Wear until you reach the roundabout on Newton Cap.

This wasn't a one-off incident because it happened again in Redworth (March 6), so it seems Durham Police are over-manned if they can use so many police to catch motorists.

Now the Government comes up with yet another whitewash, saying all cameras are strategically-placed for safety reasons and not for making money, even though the police themselves admit at least 400 are not needed. So my tenner is staying in my pocket.

This Government has treated the elderly and the motorist with contempt but they'll have time to reflect where they went wrong when they are sitting in opposition. - A McKimm, Crook.

REDEVELOPMENT

I THINK Durham City owes a big debt of gratitude and possibly an apology to Ultimate Leisure plc, which has recently refurbished the former Brown's Boathouse.

Now that the scaffolding is down and the doors are about to open, surely even the most vociferous of objectors must concede that Ultimate Leisure has done a wonderful job.

It has spent an enormous sum of money preserving what was a very dilapidated and nearly derelict building when it would have been considerably cheaper to pull the place down and start from scratch.

There are several seemingly self-appointed groups who seem to object to any development within the city, especially if it involves licensed premises. These groups must realise that without companies of vision, such as Ultimate Leisure, much-loved buildings such as Brown's Boathouse and the Palladium building in Claypath will simply decay and deteriorate to the point of collapse.

Economics have to be considered. The leisure industry is massive and these buildings simply could not sustain art centres or other such community-based schemes.

The members of these groups must ask themselves, are they serving the city and community by preserving these derelict shells, or would they be better served putting their support behind such bold ventures such as the conversion of the boathouse?

If they object to development of the city centre in principle, usually on the grounds of self interest such as the fear of noise and potential rowdiness they expect from licensed premises, why do they choose to live in the heart of a city such as Durham? - Peter A. Smith, Durham.

LINDISFARNE GOSPELS

THE Lindisfarne Gospels do not belong to the North-East but to the nation and the world. In the British Library, they are safe. So says Simon Witney, London-based.

Safe from what? There have been no Viking raids since the 11th century and the Cathedral librarians are perfectly capable of arranging for their conservation.

"The campaign to remove the Gospels from London promotes an essentially sentimental and narrow regionalism," he says. Rather, it is an attempt to replace the Gospels in the context of the culture which produced them and in conjunction with the other relics of St Cuthbert with which they were associated until Henry VIII's commissioners carried them off.

In an earlier letter, I tried to show that being a national treasure did not necessarily mean that something had to be kept in London, which is not 'the nation' but merely a megalopolis inhabited by scholars suffering from collective cultural imperialism.

No one expects the British Library to give up ownership of the Gospels - after four-and-a-half centuries I suppose theft has become sanctified by antiquity - merely to lend them back to Northumbria which was, after all, the intellectual capital of this country when they were produced. - TJ Towers (Revd), Langley Park.

GM CROPS

THE Northern Echo is absolutely correct in highlighting the lack of scientific research, level of public concern and absence of a regulatory framework as reasons why the Government's decision to allow the commercial growing of GM maize is a betrayal of the British people and a further blow to the fragile environment of this country (Echo, Mar 10).

However, even if it was conclusively proven that genetic modification would be of no detriment to human health or the environment, the case for the widespread use of this technology would still not be made.

The problems with current farming practices are well-documented: 98 per cent of our wildflower meadows have disappeared, the number of farmland birds has declined dramatically, and almost half of our fresh fruit and vegetables contain pesticide residues.

The question, therefore, is not whether growing GM crops is any worse than conventional agriculture, but whether this technology is actually going to deliver the sustainable agricultural system that would be the best long-term option for this country.

Friends of the Earth believes the way to achieve such a system is not through GM, but by shifting resources to supporting small-scale, locally-produced, chemical-free agriculture that has at its heart the protection of our countryside, the safeguarding of human health and the rejuvenation of the UK farming industry. - Frances Aldson, North East Campaigns Co-ordinator, Friends of the Earth.