TUITION FEES: I AM delighted the Government won the vote on tuition fees, albeit by a small majority.

The Tories thought they would take advantage of the situation by adopting a totally hypocritical position.

How did they propose to give the universities the money they need? Nobody knows because they never said how they would tackle the problem. They seem to be against everything and for nothing.

At least the Liberal Democrats were honest and said they would increase income tax.

As for the students - well, they seem to think that everyone else owes them a privileged education.

Most of them will graduate with the prospect of a good career with well paid employment - is it not right that they should make some contribution to this?

One of the problems in having a welfare society is that many people, obviously students among them, think that someone else will pay.

I did not see any students protesting about the burden of the council tax on many not so well off pensioners.

I would say to Mr Howard, come off your opportunistic fence and let's hear your plans for some of the problems facing our country.

Finally, now that students have to contribute to their own education they may turn their thoughts to helping the less privileged in our country, and let's not forget many well off parents can well afford to pay for their offspring's university education.

Having read the Government's proposals it is clear the main thrust of the Tuition Fees Bill is to help the less well off students. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

DID anyone really imagine that Tony Blair wouldn't survive the controversy on tuition fees?

No matter how many MPs professed to disagree with him, at the end of the day there would always have been enough turncoats to assure his victory at voting time. They know which side their bread is buttered. - Ken Orton, Ferryhill Station.

COUNCIL TAX

HOW can Darlington Council justify the large increase in council tax?

Pensioners and low income people just can't afford this increase on the money they get and not everybody is able to claim pension credit to help them.

The council could do better to reclaim the thousands of pounds rent arrears back which they are talking of saying goodbye to. These people will get away with it this time and only continuing not to pay. Nothing is done to them.

If you are late or don't pay your council tax for one month a threatening letter is sent out promising legal action. This should be done with the rent arrears.

I only hope the council tax increase is capped by the Government or old people will have to sacrifice something to pay this increase. - M Chisman, Darlington.

I NOTE in the national press that the Government is planning to link the system of fines (for speeding) to a person's level of income. The system, apparently is to be 'massively expanded'.

If fines are to be linked to level of income, would someone like to explain to me why I am obliged to pay a 'massively expanded' council tax, regardless of my income?

If fines are to be linked to income, then council tax should be similarly applied. - JC Madgin, Durham.

PARKING

A DECISION has been taken to eliminate any free short term parking from Darlington's surrounding streets by people who either do not care about our town's traders or they just have no business acumen whatsoever.

A vast amount of trade is done in the town, particularly in the market by people who just want to purchase their day to day items, which never takes more than an hour to complete, and under the proposed parking costs they will be £1 down before they start.

Surely it would make more sense to make the first two hours parking free in all car parks instead of getting rid of the existing two hour places. The revenue which will be achieved by charging everywhere in town will be peanuts compared with the amounts lost through trade.

However pen has now been put to paper and the council have made their decision so may I suggest to people to forget shopping in Darlington and use the pound you would have had to spend parking in Darlington to pay for petrol and go to Northallerton where parking is free and the town is buzzing. - Jim Rishworth, Darlington.

PRISON POPULATION

THE Prison Reform Trust is concerned about the amount of people in prison in both England and Wales compared with Libya, Burma, Malaysia and Turkey.

Aren't we all? It's costing the law-abiding taxpayers a fortune.

The reason why this is so is because convicts who come out of foreign prisons look back and say to themselves: "I am not going back to that hell hole again."

Unfortunately, that is not the case over here where they are better looked after than our elder folks.

The authorities have to make up their minds as to whether prison is a punishment or for rehabilitation.

In my view it should be a punishment and the prison conditions should be the same as the foreign countries previously mentioned, then we will soon see a dramatic drop in the prison population. - Charles Young, Thornaby.

SLEDGING

YOUR photograph (Echo, Jan 29), showing students 'having fun' sledging on plastic bags, contradicts an article I once read by safety experts who said that due to sharp foreign objects that could be under the snow, sledging on plastic bags was deemed to be dangerous and was to be avoided.

Your photograph and the words 'having fun' may encourage others to try this dangerous method of sledging. - B Rowlands, Spennymoor.

DARLINGTON FC

IN reply to W Lamb and David Thomas Evans (HAS, Feb 2), I do blame the fans for the situation Darlington are in.

If it were not for George Reynolds (above) the club would have gone bust years ago and as for the players, why don't they take a pay cut?

The only reason 14,000 fans turned up the other week was that over half were not Darlington fans. - S. Beaton, Darlington.