31/01/06

I should remind her that, in Durham, we pay only 14 per cent of council tax to the city council and 86 per cent to the county council, police authority and fire service, all Labour run.

I agree that council tax rises should not be excessive, hopefully the city council's will be near the rate of inflation even with central government imposing additional burdens and responsibilities onto local councils. I am less convinced that this will be the case elsewhere, particularly with the county council.

It would be more convincing when our MP speaks for her constituents if she also urged financial restraint on the Labour big spenders of our council tax.

Whatever the rises in council tax, it will remain everyone's most detested tax as it is totally unfair. The poorest, particularly pensioners, and those on low incomes pay a far greater percentage of their incomes on council tax than the rich as, unlike income tax, it bears no reflection on ability to pay. - Councillor David Freeman, Liberal Democrat, Durham County Council.

ROYAL MAIL

I WAS very interested to read Mrs Jean Bowes's account (HAS, Jan 24) of the difficulties she had in contacting Royal Mail's Wear Valley Delivery Office to arrange redelivery of a parcel.

I have had similar problems with the Durham Delivery Office, with the phone either left to ring unanswered or taken off the hook. My frustration was increased when two letters of complaint which I wrote to the Darlington area office were simply ignored.

In the end I wrote to Royal Mail Headquarters (5th Floor, 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ) to complain and received an apologetic reply from a Mr Robert Scott Fraser.

I was assured that "all administrative staff are instructed to answer the telephone at all times".

Mr Fraser ended by saying: "I would like to reiterate that every effort would be taken to improve the service and meet the requirements of our customers. If you do have further problems of a similar nature please do not hesitate to contact our headquarters".

I suggest that Mrs Bowes should do just that. - Ian Forsyth, Durham.

GEORGE REYNOLDS

RE George Reynolds (HAS, Jan 17 and 23). Both letters evoke one's sense of probity in how we ourselves would administer justice.

When the judge sentenced Mr Reynolds to prison, no doubt he would be well aware of the evidence regarding his lapses of breaching the law in not declaring his income to the tax authorities.

I personally did not agree with his prison sentence, but I would have certainly ensured that his future public business ventures would be curtailed.

If he was prepared to dupe the Crown, he certainly would have no conscience in deceiving Joe Public. - CE Scott, Scarborough.

LIKE the anonymous writer (HAS, Jan 23) I could not understand why a previous correspondent castigated Mike Amos for his comments on George Reynolds.

Some weeks ago my footballing son and grandson came from Cumbria to take grandma to the new stadium to see Darlington play.

I am 82 and enjoyed every minute of the game and every inch of the new stadium. I also follow all comments - good, bad and indifferent.

What I cannot understand is how fans can even contemplate returning to Feethams.

Whatever George Reynolds has done, he has left Darlington a superb legacy, one which is really top class and which any team of any league would be proud to visit.

If you have not been to see the new stadium I would suggest it opens its doors for a day so that the citizens of Darlington can give themselves a treat and see what, together with the new layout of the town centre, we have to be proud of in the future. - R Lewis, Darlington.

KING'S ACADEMY

MAY I raise some points about the King's Academy, Middlesbrough ('Truancy hit list shames schools' and 'Academy delight at good marks') (Echo, Jan 19 and 12).

If the academy has such high truancy rates, why is it not on the Government hit list?

Its exam results appear to show an improvement on those of the schools it replaced. However, I refer you to the comments of a teacher at the academy, who writes on the Times Educational Supplement website that "this year's results (2005) will be the first real academy results where students have done all their GCSE courses in the academy. They will have been cynically engineered.

"Y10 and Y11 students in the middle to lower ability bands have been made to follow an internal course of so called 'basic skills'. This has been sold to them and their parents as being worth four GCSEs. These students will not, however, feature in the exam statistics which will reflect only the percentages of passes among the higher achievers.

"Add this to the high exclusion rates, both formal and informal, and any successes will need to be carefully analysed. Comparisons with the previous schools (sic) results from this year will be meaningless."

As regards the Ofsted report, your article stated that the academy had achieved top marks. Top marks at Ofsted are 'excellent'. The academy was 'satisfactory to good'.

A search of your website shows that the school the academy replaced was good and rapidly improving (HAS, Aug 29, 2004). It seems that a huge amount of taxpayers' money has been spent to little effect. - D Lindsley, Durham.

NUCLEAR POWER

ANYONE who saw the TV programme about the horrific events at Chernobyl should think seriously about supporting the Government's revived nuclear ambitions.

Do not think that a Chernobyl could not happen here. As the film vividly made clear, the operators of the Chernobyl plant thought it was perfectly safe and could not understand why it blew up.

But blow up it did, contaminating the surrounding towns with many thousands times the lethal dose of nuclear radiation. Those towns were relatively small compared to the towns surrounding the Hartlepool nuclear plant, for instance.

Remember any mistake will not only kill thousands of people, but is going to blight the lives of our children, grandchildren and many more generations to come.

Where do you think this Labour Government will build all these new nuclear power stations?

If the Government is sincere in its belief that the nuclear option is really safe, then it can prove it by constructing the very first one in Westminster, next to the Houses of Parliament. How likely is that do you think?

If you, like me, would like to explore the cheaper and safer options of renewable energy and energy conservation, then write to your MP now: in three months' time it will be too late. - Leslie Rowe, Richmond Green Party.

GOOD AND BAD

I WAS very pleased to see Durham County Council convert a mile of so of pavement between Shincliffe and Bowburn into a cycle path and I use it daily. That's the good news.

The bad news is, today, the adjacent thorn hedge was neatly trimmed by a machine which spreads a veritable carpet of needle-sharp spikes on the cycle path and road, making a puncture a certainty and putting dogs out walking at real risk. - Fred Atkinson, Shincliffe.