REGIONAL GOVERNMENT: A NORTH-EAST Regional Assembly, a Geordie Parliament, will have little or no benefit to the region.

The proposed location in Durham is only a ploy to make readers think this is a half-way location between Tyneside and Teesside which will make all happy.

In my political career I have witnessed four local government re-organisations, all of which have cost the tax and ratepayers dearly. The Geordie Parliament will create a tier of government well remote from local people and local areas, controlled by officials and a small number of elected members at a cost which will increase tax bills to sky high levels.

The Geordie Parliament will not create one more extra teacher, policeman or social worker. It will only be a burden on the people of the North-East. You only have to look at the cost of the Parliament in Scotland and the Assembly in Wales to find the true costs of regional government in the UK.

The people of the North-East should reject the idea of a Geordie Parliament based in Durham. It is, in my opinion, only sad news for the whole of the area and it will cost you dear. - Coun Stephen Smailes, Conservative Group Leader, Stockton Council.

PETROL PRICES

CAN you ask one of our beloved MPs to explain to myself and the rest of the general public why our petrol/diesel has to be priced in litres? As a result the average person does not know how much a gallon of fuel costs.

If it is because of a directive from Brussels, then why are our road signs not in kilometres? Or do you think that we are being secretly conned just like when the oil companies loaded two and a half pence per litre on fuel because they thought there might be a fuel shortage owing to the Iraq war. - J Amos, Willington.

COUNCIL HOUSING

SEDGEFIELD Borough Council intends to transfer its housing stock to a housing association, via large scale voluntary transfer (LSVT).

It is the responsibility of local authorities to provide affordable, rented social housing. The council says that it does not have enough money to meet the standards that tenants are demanding and that there will be a shortfall of £62m between the amount of money the council can spend bringing the houses up the decent homes standard (£55m) and the amount that would be required to modernise the homes to the level demanded by tenants (£117m).

What I would like to know is what happened to the money that the council gained from the sale of council houses during the 80s and 90s, not to mention all the money we pay in the very high council tax? What exactly are they spending it on?

The final decision on council housing will be made by the tenants in an independent ballot, and stock retention by the council will be an option. I urge all council tenants to vote in favour of the status quo. - Councillor Martin Jones, Spennymoor.

COUNCIL TAX

NO wonder pensioners are demonstrating about the rise in council tax, if they get a rise in pension which equals inflation and then the council puts up the council tax above inflation. They find it hard to live on income which is decreasing.

If they live as a couple and pay their rates, while next door there could be four wage earners living in a similar house and paying the same council tax, obviously it is not right.

If the Government wants to be fair, why not put up the pension by the same amount as council tax, and then make it inflation proof. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

EUROPE

THE 'feelings' expressed by myself on behalf of UKIP and many other correspondents regarding EU withdrawal are 'feelings' shared by a distinct majority of the population.

This is a fact which I am sure even T Conlon (HAS, Sept 24) will acknowledge.

Curiously he regards the term 'largely corrupt' when defining the EU as a thing of the past. It was only in August 2003 that the International Board of Auditors refused to sign off the EU accounts for the eighth consecutive year due to irregularities, poor accounting practices, ineptitude and fraud.

All EU directives, regulations etc are formulated solely by the European Commission, a body which being unelected, is de-facto unaccountable. - Dave Pascoe, Hartlepool.

RELIGION

IN attempting to discredit belief in God and the Bible, CT Riley (HAS, Sept 22) confuses the material and the spiritual.

Obviously material things exist in time and therefore have a beginning and an end. God does not exist in time and therefore has neither.

Indeed, the temporary nature of material things implies the existence of someone outside of time upon whom they depend.

The alternative is the absurdity that the past itself had no beginning (in that case, how could you ever reach the present?).

As for the literal truth of the Bible. Yes, creationists accept that, but they are far from being simple-minded enough to suppose that's the end of the story.

The Bible is a book of infinite depths of truth and wisdom - as atheists would do well to bear in mind when referring to it. - T Kelly, Crook.