Hear All Sides

SPACE TOURIST

THE report of the space flight of Dennis Tito should be headlined "The Height of Greed and Selfishness." £14m would go a long way towards research into all manner of projects which would benefit mankind.

Instead one greedy old man stares out of the newspaper, reported as saying "It was Paradise".

Controls should be placed on how the obscenely rich spend their money. - D Brearley, Middlesbrough.

LOCAL DEMOCRACY

COUNCILLOR Lightley (HAS, May 4) bemoans the fact that Labour councillors in Durham City hold all of the portfolios in the new Cabinet. This is not such an outrage when your consider that Labour secured 33 of the 49 seats at the last election.

In other words, they were democratically elected as the majority party and entrusted with the leadership of the council by the people of Durham. They have a duty to carry out their manifesto commitments, such as regeneration of the city centre through the Millennium City Project, and will be judged on their performance.

Councillor Lightley and his colleagues should not underestimate their role in opposition to ensure that the majority party explains and justifies its policies.

In order to aid this process and encourage an open and transparent system of local government, two opposition members were invited to join the cabinet as members without portfolios.

There is no mandatory requirement for this but the Labour Group believes it is in the best interests of democracy. - M Bennett, Durham City Labour Group.

FOOT-AND-MOUTH

WHY are all these animals being slaughtered when the animals can be cured and do exceptionally well afterwards.

The powers that be will never stop foot-and-mouth, as has been proved up to now. All they know is that it is a disease. They don't know where it comes from or where it will strike next.

It could, or hopefully will, die down for a year or two or longer then up comes its ugly head again.

Farmers are a hardworking class of people, bred and born to their job, and are not run off a production line like cars, so why so much interference from the Government. - P Dabbs, Bedale.

I WAS staggered and appalled to read that, as well as three vets and several officials, troops were used to enter the premises of Carolyn Hoffe, and kill her pet sheep (Echo, May 5).

These vets and officials seem to have a lust for blood which yet has not been satisfied. Thousands of healthy animals have been slaughtered. Even Mrs Hoffe's last request to bury her pets on her own land was denied her.

The whole foot-and-mouth epidemic has been an absolute fiasco with this Government, in its desperation, not knowing what to do next.

The anguish of Mrs Hoffe and of young Jessica Cleminson we will not easily forget. - Dorothy Halsey, Romanby, Northallerton.

SO five pet sheep have been killed because, according to the judge, they have carried foot-and-mouth disease. So could most of the wildlife in these area. Did anyone suggest trying to cull these? Of course not.

Every year thousands of pets and other animals are brought into this country. Are they killed because they could have carried rabies - a very much more dangerous disease than foot-and-mouth? No. They are kept in what is now a very controversial six months quarantine.

These five pet sheep were in excellent quarantine yet the owner's home was broken into to remove and kill them and her property was violated by supposedly law-enforcing agents tramping all over it, taking extraordinary measures to prevent filming.

It appears that the judges know as little about disease and the spread of it as does Maff. I, and I am not the only one, think that the culling should start there. - Margaret Jones, Bishop Auckland.

ANYONE who has had to stand and watch as their much loved pet was put to sleep because of old age or illness must have felt the horror and pain I felt while watching Government officials break their way into the home of the lady keeping her five pet sheep in her living room, to save them from destruction.

This event was broadcast on the evening news. The reporter left a microphone in the house and people outside - supporters of the lady - listened while she screamed in anguish as her healthy pets were put to sleep.

What I would like to know is a: as healthy animals, if they had never been off her property and were not likely to go off it in the future, how could they be of risk to neighbouring farms? b: what human and moral rights were being breached by this invasion of her property and, if this is acceptable practice now, what will it lead to in the future? - B Tingate, Darlington.

RAILWAY BRIDGES

I FULLY support your campaign (Echo, May 11) on rail bridge safety. A fast mainline train compares with several jumbo jets at once.

To bog down on legalities of fragmented decades-old agreements is irrelevant to present circumstances. It would make sense for costs to be borne proportionately to risks to rail and road users - that is, mainly by Railtrack and partly by highways authorities.

Is no one at Railtrack responsible for overall safety? Their first step should have been to identify all the potential hazards, internal and external. Unsafe road bridges should have been highlighted then, years ago, and monitored regularly.

Now the local authorities had better take an initiative. Since some major bridge works will be needed, temporary measures should be taken, even if they are only danger signs and cones.

In addition to the 18 bridges you picture, two more in my electoral division are unsafe: the busy B1263 Scorton-Yarm road with short angled brick parapets near East Cowton, and the minor road bridge just east of Danby Wiske. - Mike O'Carroll Independent Candidate, Northallerton.