Sir, - Mr A Shaw (head of North Yorkshire County Council minerals unit) has said that the site subject to an imminent mineral extraction application at Ladybridge is not in close proximity to the Thornborough Henges. He will, of necessity, know that this is untrue.

I am aware of the destruction of a tremendous amount of Neolithic remains on the quarried land adjacent to this site. At Tarmac's liaison meetings I have asked for details of these remains and they have admitted to little more than a Roman kiln. There was no mention of finds central to our understanding of our ancestors on this sacred site. Despite my asking repeated questions of various bodies, this information remains undisclosed.

Having recently observed, at the Nosterfield Quarry, material which forms our archaeological heritage being used to make a new (and eventually probably award-winning) reed bed, I phoned Malcolm Barnett (senior rural conservation officer for NYCC and LUCT trustee) and asked whether he was aware that even as we spoke a tremendous amount of Neolithic and Bronze Age remains were being destroyed.

He replied that he was not. I have taken photographs, from ground and air, of these archaeological remains now being destroyed. I have asked the chief executive of the county council to call an immediate halt to this destruction.

These remains, when discovered, were of such importance that immediate action should have been taken in line with Government policy (PPG16) to preserve them in situ. However, NYCC senior archaeologist, Neil Campling, says that he is happy with the way the archaeological investigation was handled.

In the book Managing the Historic Rural Landscape under the heading "Mineral Working", I read of the discovery, in 1995 and 1997, of pits, post alignments and hearths at the Ladybridge area. The author was the archaeologist, Mike Griffiths, who was the archaeologist supervising work at the Nosterfield Quarry. He is a former senior archaeologist for NYCC.

There is no room for doubt about the extreme importance of the Ladybridge site.

R J LONSDALE

Kiln Farm,

Nosterfield,

Bedale.

Cost of assembly

Sir, - So John Prescott is going to proceed with European inspired political dogma and introduce regional assemblies in certain areas of England including Yorkshire and the North-East.

Don't we have enough layers of Government already? What with Whitehall, county and town councils?

I note that the cost of the proposed regional assemblies is to be met by a levy on the council tax.

Will the county council precepts, levies and contributions for the fire authority, flood defence/sea fisheries, along with the costs of magistrates' courts and national parks be deducted from the county council budget in future and be transferred to the new regional authority?

What about education and social services?

More importantly, will the North Yorkshire Police Authority precept be transferred from the borough council to the regional assembly? There was a percentage increase of 76.1pc last year, and a 41.5pc increase in the previous year.

Considering that council tax income is derived in the main from householders (who are probably the most law-abiding members of society), one can only wonder why the cost of law enforcement is not funded by central government.

Unless central government can assure the public that changes in the funding of the regional assemblies will be financed by ALL, and not just by the council tax payer, there can only be one answer to the referendum on regional assemblies - FORGET IT - we don't want just another level of government to pay for.

GEORGE S COOK

Manor Road,

Knaresborough.

Tragic farce

Sir, - It is remarkable for something to be both a farce and a tragedy at the same time. However, if regional assemblies are created, such will be the case.

The assemblies are to cover artificial regions of government design calculated to secure the abolition of county councils and to provide John Prescott with an expensive retirement gift.

A North-East assembly will assume a community of interest between Tyneside and Teesside and the latter will suffer greatly being dominated and marginalised the more especially if it continues fragmented.

Is this not a further argument for a united Teesside, a concept I have been advocating for more than 40 years?

If the fragmentation continues, then is it not likely that Middlesbrough and Stockton finish being governed by one assembly and the rest of Teesside by another assembly (Yorkshire and Humberside). And what of Stokesley? Well, I suppose it would be Yorkshire and Humbershire also. We have had many raw deals from North Yorkshire and Hambleton, but to be subject to Leeds or Sheffield does not bear thinking about.

DAVID SIMON

Levenside,

Stokesley