IN the March issue of the Town Crier, Coun John Williams describes Darlington as a wonderful place to live and work. He explains the proposals for Darlington to become the gateway to the region and says we are well placed because of our excellent rail and road communications and have the best facilities possible.

I have no wish to denigrate the efforts of the council to promote Darlington to prospective investors and developers. However, I would suggest that a modern bus station will be required before Darlington can become the gateway to the region.

I must take issue with Coun Williams when he says "attractive shops of which we have plenty in our town centre".

Can I remind him of Bainbridge Barkers, Doggarts, Lucks, Dressers, Cox and Falconers, Uptons, the Co-operative (taking up most of Priestgate). Food shops such as Wildsmiths, Binns, Dobsons, Sparks, Hintons etc.

I suggest that Coun Williams takes off his rose-tinted spectacles. - R Elliott, Darlington.

HEALTH SERVICE

IT is said that waiting times for GPs and practice nurses have been halved by the Advanced Access scheme in several of the town's surgeries. It may well be that the scheme is ideal for many people, but there are difficulties for most of us who work out of town and start work at 7am Mondays to Fridays.

A relative of mine is such an example in that he was required to visit his doctor after a consultation at the hospital, and using his mobile phone, was unable to get through for two days because the line was very busy and once he got through he was told to try again the next day within a period in the morning.

This was totally wrong because it was a hospital instruction specifically that he needed the doctor's appointment.

Maybe this was an isolated incident and teething troubles with the scheme, but he was left a very frustrated and unhappy man. - Peter Johnson, Darlington.

STREET CLEANING

AFTER reading this month's Town Crier it is encouraging to see the effort of cleaning Darlington streets of litter is starting to have some effect.

Let us hope in the near future that the same effort, manpower and resources are put into cleaning our streets of dog fouling, which seems to be on the increase.

Surely it is as important to rid our streets of this disgusting problem as it is to clear them of litter. - E Clegg, Darlington.

CAR PARKING

WITH the new parking restrictions being introduced in the Victoria Road area at the end of April, can we expect any improvement to the long stay car park in Park Lane?

Nothing has been done to it since the demolition of the abattoir, except for the installation of a ticket machine.

The whole area is strewn with broken glass, there are no marked parking places and most serious of all, there is no lighting and no security cameras.

Does the council seriously expect commuters to feel safe leaving their cars there all day? - Susan White, Darlington.