Weardale: I WORKED at the Blue Circle cement works at Eastgate for nearly 30 years and am absolutely disgusted at the way in which One NorthEast is just wasting public money on stupid schemes.

I live in a working dale and have done all my life and to see such ideas come from supposedly intelligent people defies all belief. We have recently had a Mr Bean report suggesting altering cement silos to make offices/hotel rooms (which I believe is not possible), now Disneyworld.

All we want are proper jobs and the local businessman seem to be pushed to one side in favour of railways and tourism.

Will the so-called academics get it into their heads that these schemes will not work and the locals want manufacturing jobs which will bring sustainabilit? After all, we live here.

One NorthEast is nothing more than a laughing stock. - Dennis Richardson, Bishop Auckland.

THE cement works closure was announced over a year ago and I and people of my age are genuinely concerned at the action which has taken place by both local authorities and One NorthEast.

The latest crazy scheme about Eco Disneyland really takes the biscuit and I think it's high time these agency people were held to account and abolished.

We need secure, long lasting employment not academic craziness. - Will Noble, Stanhope.

THE latest suggestion for the site of Lafarge Cement is an Eco Disneyland (Echo, Feb 20).

It would be interesting to know how much this and other feasibility studies are costing and who is paying for them.

John Bridge of One NorthEast said the idea was being pursued at the request of locals. Well I am local and could I ask John Bridge and the Weardale Task Force why they will not speak to local businessman Terry Simmons, who is promising to bring 135 manufacturing jobs to the dale?

It seems to me that One NorthEast, the Weardale Task Force and Wear Valley Council want one thing for the area - tourism.

This may help a certain few but very unlikely to help me and other locals find a job in the dale. - J Emerson, Stanhope.

SHOPPING FOR THE FUTURE

I WOULD like to publicly thank The Northern Echo for the commencement of the Shopping for a Future campaign.

Let's hope this gives the town, which could and should be a little gem, the voice it has been sadly lacking in recent years. - Jim Tague, Chairman, Conservative Party, Bishop Auckland Branch.

WAR AGAINST IRAQ

IF the objectives of the organisers of the recent anti-war demonstrations in London and elsewhere are to perpetuate the reign of Saddam Hussein and lend credibility to the lamentable incompetence of the UN, then the marches have been most successful.

Neither the marches nor the continuing torrent of correspondence in apparent support of Iraq have a shred of hard facts to support them. May I now offer just a few?

If the UN had done its job 11 years ago we would not be in our present plight today. But for the aggression of the US and the UK the weapons inspectors would still be excluded from Iraq.

Saddam Hussein is said to have slaughtered six million of his own population and caused four million more to seek asylum, many of them in our country.

He has used weapons of mass destruction and although he claims to have destroyed them he is not prepared to say where or how.

Whatever may be said of President Bush and any personal motives he may have for taking action against Iraq, the same cannot be said of Tony Blair, who has everything to lose and nothing to gain by standing by his principles. - Alan Benn, Press Officer, Hambleton and District Labour Party.

THE sheer arrogance of Tony Blair, in saying he is pursuing a moral and humane policy over Iraq, is truly breathtaking.

What is humane about blowing women and children to bits with their smart bombs?

Afghanistan was promised millions in aid but their country is wrecked and in a state of civil war. If you are expecting the truth from our politicians, forget it. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

LEISURE FACILITIES

WEAR Valley District Council knew exactly what it was doing when it closed the Spectrum under false pretences. Anyone using the complex could see it was a viable enterprise and being used to its fullest by young and old.

You could pass through the Spectrum at any time of day and never see an empty car park.

The council wants to regenerate the town by building new homes. With no leisure centre to maintain, WVDC has cut its expenditure to the detriment of the local community.

What have people got to come to now? Ample fast food outlets and public houses, but little else. And if it were not for Sure Start, then there would be even less promise for the young people and their families. - F Rolfe, Crook.

TERRORIST SUSPECTS

DEREK Bond's ordeal in South Africa brings to mind the ordeal of Lotfi Raissi, the Algerian pilot who was arrested in London at 3am, thrown naked into a police car and imprisoned for five months.

The FBI demanded his extradition, claiming they had video and telecommunications evidence that he had trained the September 11 highjackers, and said he could face the death penalty. All the FBI really had was a webcam shot of Lotfi, not with a highjacker, but with his cousin.

There are similarities with the case of the six Teesside and Darlington men arrested in dawn raids a year ago. No evidence against them has yet been presented.

Painstaking detective work, rather than war, remains the proper way to deal with terrorism; but there should be no compromise on civil rights or standards of proof. During World War Two, German Jews who fled from the Nazis were subjected to the indignity of internment; let's hope that when the next war starts, Iraqis and Kurds who seek refuge from Saddam will not be so shamefully treated. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.