NOT all museums are a burden to the ratepayers (Echo, Aug 10). The Weardale Museum is an independent museum run completely by volunteers in their third age.

We operate to the professional standards set out by the Museums and Galleries Commission and believe that we are an asset, rather than a burden, to our community.

We don't charge an arm and a leg for entry and though, in our isolated location, visitor numbers are fewer than we would like, we manage to pay our way. We are proud to survive independently and we enjoy no subsidy. - DT Heatherington, Secretary of The Weardale Museum, Ireshopeburn.

ANIMAL WELFARE

AS a former officer of the League Against Cruel Sports, I can assure Alasdair Mitchell (HAS, Aug 10) that the League Against Cruel Sports has always campaigned for a ban on the use of snares for the purpose of killing or taking foxes, just as it did for the abolition in 1958 of that former gamekeepers' evil instrument, the gin trap.

It is true that, in the early 1990s, scientific research conducted in Scotland by Aberdeen University and funded by the League, involved the brief capture of a handful of foxes in free-running snares fitted with stops to prevent injury to the animals. The purpose was to enable radio-transmitting collars to be fitted to the animals, which were then released and tracked for the next three years.

The study revealed that foxes free from persecution by man do not increase in numbers and are not a threat to sheep farming.

Funding such research was a real moral dilemma for the League, because it necessitated the initial and brief capture of foxes in snares by the scientists.

However, clearly, no such soul-searching occurs within the gamekeeping community, as in more than 30 years involvement in animal welfare, none of the hundreds of gamekeepers' snares I have seen have ever been fitted with a 'stop', or set in accordance with the code of practice advocated by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation and the Game Conservancy. - John Bryant, Plumstead, London.

RICHARD NEALE

THERE has been extensive coverage regarding disgraced surgeon Richard Neale and the fact that he has been working in an NHS hospital since being struck off by the GMC.

Personally, I would not let this man walk across a hospital car park, let alone enter such a building. John Dean's article (Echo, Aug 7) praised Mr Neale after the surgeon seemingly gave up his Saturday off to treat Mr Dean's wife.

I cannot help remind John Dean, as well as all who read this, that many of this rogue surgeon's victims gave up a hell of a lot more than a Saturday afternoon through absolutely no fault of their own and I find this a very inappropriate time to sing the man's praises.

In a meeting with the Prime Minister early last year, my wife was promised that all that could be done would be done to sort out the Neale fiasco but there has been so sign of this so far. - Ian Pinkney, Newton Aycliffe.

ATHLETICS

YOUR article (Echo, Aug 8) about the astounding 10,000 metre gold medal winning run of Paula Radcliffe also featured Liz McColgan. However, it did omit Liz's greatest achievement, namely her astonishing gold medal winning world championship 10,000 metre destruction of the opposition, including the formidable Chinese athletes, in the intense heat and humidity of Tokyo in 1991.

Liz's run was, in its own way, as brilliant as Paula's European effort and was described at the time as the greatest middle distance run at a major championship by any British woman.

It is arguable whether Paula's 10,000 metre run at Munich was better or not. The one thing that both these runners had in common was an absolute determination to compete intensely, to the best of their ability and not to be happy to settle for second best. - Dave Atkinson, Darlington.

I AM writing to object to the flop, skip and jump headline about Jonathan Edwards' participation in the recent European Championships (Echo, Aug 9).

Jonathan Edwards has done more for the honest face of British sport than any athlete for many a decade and to use such a flippant word in the circumstances seems to us to be utterly insulting.

The article is fair, but spoiled by this flop remark. - Brenda and Don Marshall and family, Darlington.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

THE population of the North-East is due to decline by 3.5 per cent over the next 25 years with the young working population expected to shrink by around 20 per cent.

Unless the Government acts with more vigour to bring employment to the region, our local authorities are faced with a massive task of maintaining thriving, vibrant communities.

With the latest advances in electronic communications distance is irrelevant, so why can the Government not begin to decentralise the multitude of jobs in the major civil service departments based in and around London? It makes no sense for the Government to be paying for subsidised housing and extra allowances to encourage teachers, nurses and policemen to move into London, while in the North-East paying out vast sums to support areas of deprivation and unemployment. Many thousands of jobs could be brought into the region to help offset the decline in manufacturing.

In County Durham, 30 per cent of jobs are in manufacturing while, nationally, it is 18 per cent. This reliance on manufacturing makes us in the North-East vulnerable to wider economic forces. The quicker there is a realisation of what needs to be done to address this imbalance the better it will be for the region. - Councillor Kevin Thompson, Liberal Democrat, Middleston Ward, Sedgefield Borough Council.