Published: 01/03/2008 00:00 -
Updated: 05/02/2010 14:30
No scientific back-up for nuclear opposition
Sir - I repeatedly observe that the vast majority of those people who advocate renewable forms of power sources and in the same breath decry the proven technology of nuclear power, have no scientific experience or background.
This is never truer than the small article on nuclear power (February 24) written by Tony Mitchell.
He argues for desert generators and then in the next sentence asks for the development of decentralised systems, an amusing contradiction of ideas.
It is worth noting that 600 wind generators are required, assuming the wind blows day in day out, to replace one nuclear or gas powered generator.
Chris Meadows Dart Road, Bedford.
Sound sentiments but absurd argument Sir - While I wholeheartedly agree with most of the sentiments expressed in the article by Tony Mitchell, unfortunately he seems to have fallen into that most common trap of exaggerating his thesis to the point of making it ridiculous.
It is true that should considerable global warming occur then it will have a significant effect on certain species of this planet but to assert, as apparently he does, that all life may end is blatantly absurd.
The only way that life could be rendered extinct here would be in the event of all the water on Earth evaporating.
Should we ever reach the state where we have burned all the oil and coal deposits available to us, the rise in atmospheric temperature would still be comparatively small, certainly nowhere near enough to boil away our oceans.
No, the only effect which global warming will have is to eliminate a comparatively small number of flora and fauna which cannot adapt to the rise in temperature, and whether this is important depends upon your individual standpoint.
As for the major effects of long term global warming, if indeed it does exist, its immediate effect will be to cause considerable discomfort to a great many of the human race, which could well be considered as poetic justice were it not for the fact that those who will suffer most are the very people who have done the least to bring it about.
RT Burnapp, Goldington Road, Bedford
Talk to Mid Beds Sir - David Reeves, Labour Party Parliamentary Candidate for Mid Beds, raised some concerns last week that there could be too many new homes built in Mid Bedfordshire.
He will no doubt be aware of the pressure from Central Government on local authorities to meet and exceed housebuilding targets.
The TalktoMidBeds consultation is Mid Beds District Council's most wide-ranging to date and aims to involve local people in deciding how and where central Government housebuilding targets should be met.
Four hundred sites have been submitted to us by developers and landowners.
Only a small fraction of these will be needed to meet housebuilding and job creation targets. The purpose of the TalktoMidBeds consultation is to gain the views of local people on all these sites before we decide which of them might be suitable for development.
Over the next six months or so we will be using the comments made to decide which are the most appropriate sites to take forward. Consultation ends on April 4, so we would encourage everyone to visit the website (www.talktomidbeds.co.uk) or come to their local exhibition to have their say.
Simon Andrews
Development plans team leader
Mid Beds District Council
Sir - On its TalktoMidBeds website, the district council states that the sites which are currently the subject of the public consultation for new housing and employment are 'not the council's preferred sites or sites that the council has chosen'.
It says these sites have been submitted for consideration by developers and landowners. Surely this is a shocking admission? We have elected councillors to serve the needs and the good of their local communities, not to satisfy the desires and the wallets of developers.
It is widely accepted that many of the housing failures and abominations of the last 50 years have been brought about by developer-led developments. I urge all your readers who care about preserving the character and the integrity of local communities to tell the council not to listen to developer-led proposals which inevitably overlook local needs in the pursuit of profit.
Jerry Fitch
The Coppins, Ampthill
Relief at centre decision Sir - In response to Paul Rowntree's letter (Centre site spot on, February 24), the fact of the matter is that the proposed site for the leisure centre on the Millennium Park in Flitwick would have increased the number of cars going through our town on our already congested roads, not least the A5120.
The UK is experiencing an increase in respiratory diseases and in particular asthma, especially in young people.
Your correspondent might have a point in so much that a major contributor to asthma is vehicle exhaust fumes but he wants to expose the most vulnerable by supporting siting the proposed leisure centre opposite a school.
The environmental value of the Millennium Park as is cannot be overstated in its role of mitigating the effects of air pollution.
The present site may be inconvenient for a few people but it has to be remembered that it is in the right position for the majority of users.
It does not add to the vehicular traffic through the town and the consequent decrease in air quality of the vast majority of Flitwick residents.
The last thing Flitwick needs is an increase in vehicular traffic through the town.
Fiona Steele Secretary,
Flitwick-at-the-Crossroads Residents' Action Group
Sir - Many Flitwick residents will be relieved that the decision has been taken not to build a new leisure centre on the Millennium Park in the centre of Flitwick.
However, many questions need to be answered and the views of local people need to be taken into account before any other leisure centre scheme is considered.
As most people know, I was against the project from the beginning. I felt it was deeply flawed and not in the best interests of Flitwick residents.
My main objection was I felt it wrong to use the one open space we have left in the centre of Flitwick to build a leisure centre. It should be left as open space.
I also thought it wrong for Flitwick residents to have to pay half the build cost and supply the land when they make up less that 20 per cent of the total customer base.
I was also disappointed with the four conditions demanded by Mid Beds District Council, the town council's partner in the scheme, which were as follows: Flitwick would pay half the build cost, ie £5m, plus £1.2m for a bowling alley and softball pitch.
The district would keep all the revenue generated by the centre.
It would have sole management of the centre, with Flitwick having only an advisory role.
The district also wanted half the profit from the sale of the current leisure site, which is owned by the town.
You could be forgiven for thinking the district council was trying to pick the pocket of Flitwick residents.
Flitwick deserves better than this.
We also deserve a better town centre than the one we have and the one on offer and we must fight to get it.
Cllr Steve Mitchell
Lib Dem Flitwick East
Sir - On behalf of Mid Beds District Council I wish to reassert our commitment to building a new leisure centre in Flitwick and the west of the district.
We are now looking at different ways to provide this, however it is not likely to be on the Millennium Park in Flitwick.
Mid Beds was surprised during the autumn when Flitwick Town Council made its latest in a series of demands but has tried negotiating since.
Originally the new leisure centre was to be located on the present Steppingley Road site but then, without consultation, the town council moved it to Millennium Park. Clearly it was out of step with their residents about that.
Two weeks ago Mid Beds wrote to Flitwick Town Council asking it to revert to the original business plan put together in 2006 otherwise we could not support the project going ahead.
Under the current arrangement Mid Beds keeps the revenue from the leisure centre but also provides contract supervision and takes any financial risk, which it has done for the last 20 years.
During this time Mid Beds has turned what was a loss-making sports hall into a leisure centre which provides facilities to more than 6,000 members in the west of the district and creates a surplus used to support other leisure activities.
Any new centre was always to be funded equally by Mid Beds and the town council putting in £5m each, with the town council contributing the land as part of this package.
However, the town council wanted to cut Mid Beds' 150-year lease on the Steppingley Road site (with 144 years to run) to a shorter 25-year lease. Mid Beds said it was prepared to accept a minimum 99-year lease but needed to protect its £5m. investment.
Stephen Mitchell has a short memory - we are the custodians of the facility, not its plunderers.
It was Mid Beds who bailed out the leisure centre 20 years ago and we have repaired, refurbished and expanded it since then.
We employ staff to oversee the contract and our property and legal teams will work on the contracts and design of the new centre.
I want to say once again we are committed to creating a new leisure centre in Flitwick and the west of the district with improved facilities and will be consulting on this in due course.
Anita Lewis
Leisure, culture and safer communities portfolio holder
Mid Beds District Council
Unkind letter not from me Sir - As John Smith of High Street Sharnbrook, I read with particular interest the letter from John Smith, of Mill Road, Sharnbrook, headed 'Butcher just a whinger with an attitude problem' in your edition of February 24.
Whatever view I may take of a situation, I would never write such an unkind letter. I prefer to devote my time and energy to positive things that help the whole community.
Unfortunately, some of your readers have not noticed the Mill Road address and have attributed the remarks to me.
I had always thought that I was the only John Smith resident in Sharnbrook.
I have been through the full electoral roll for Mill Road and cannot find a John Smith listed.
I've also asked my friends who live in that part of the village and none of them has heard of another John Smith. I do hope that the letter is not from someone sheltering behind a pseudonym.
John W Smith
High Street, Sharnbrook
Sir - With regard to the new pharmacy in Sharnbrook, Alan Wilson and his wife are fully entitled to sell their butcher's shop in Sharnbrook to whoever they like.
They have run it very well for some 18 years and have been great supporters of our community. Alan Wilson was given a Certificate of Commendation by the police a few months ago for his brave and prompt action in their support when the Co-op was burgled.
People who oppose his action are equally entitled to tell him so to his face, although their real quarrel is with the Government whose regulations they dislike. The one person who sent him a very unpleasant anonymous letter should be ashamed of himself.
You published a letter from a John Smith of Mill Road. The Electoral Register does not list anyone of that name living there. The John Smith who lives in our High Street was not the author.
Michael Collis MBE
Manor Farm Way, Sharnbrook
Political hypocrisy Sir - It was with interest that I read Cllr Dave Lewis's comments on free for all cashpoints that spouts hypocrisy.
Cllr Lewis talks about tackling poverty and social exclusion yet he remains silent on post office closures by his own party in Government.
The only post office in his Kempston East Ward was closed a few years ago and now another in Springfield is marked for closure. I wonder if he will sign our party's petition to keep this and other post offices.
Will he ask the Government to revert pensions back to post offices? Elderly citizens were forced by this Government to open bank accounts so the Government could close post offices.
I suggest if Cllr Lewis cares about the deprived then he tells his party to stop closing post offices which will be a start to Social Inclusion.
Steve Collins
Kempston Conservatives
St Matthews Close Kempston
To a very special mum Sir - Like many children we believe our mother is something very special and we couldn't wish for anyone better to love and care for us.
Until this year, when she retired to care for our father, who you acknowledged a few weeks ago as waiting for a liver transplant, she was a full-time teacher. She is also a very active borough councillor.
Despite the fact that she always seems to be working from the moment she gets up until she retires at night she will immediately stop and give us her undivided attention for as long as is necessary.
I, Kate, have just finished university and my two brothers, Kevin and Jack, have 18 months to go while the youngest, Jo-Lynne, will soon be following a similar path.
But we all know that our mother is at the end of a phone and we readily use it on a daily basis to seek her out and remain a large part of our lives.
We would be chastised by our mother if we entered the commercial world of Mother's Day and so it has always been home-made cards, poems and pictures.
However for once she can be treated as she truly deserves as for the very first time as a mother her birthday falls on the same day.
Happy Birthday Sue.
Kate, Kevin, Jack and Jo-Lynne Oliver
Loveridge Avenue, Kempston
There's a place for religion Sir - I don't understand this talk of sharia law.
We used to have religious laws in this country, never were there so many burnings and torturings of those not of the True Faith.
It took many centuries and much courage by the best minds to evolve the legal system we have now. This gives equality to all, whatever their faith, lack of faith, colour, gender or sexuality.
Do we really want to have religious laws again? The devout will always seek to impose their faith on the rest of us.
But the place for religion is in the temple, mosque, church and in the home.
It does not belong in the law.
Kim Northwood,
Armstrong Close, Wilstead
Three cheers for tiers Sir - I am writing to correct a couple of misconceptions and factual inaccuracies in your article last week regarding the council's desire to abolish our current three tier education system.
It stated: 'At present, Bedfordshire is one of the few counties in Britain with three-tier (lower, middle, upper) schools, a system which is believed to hamper educational development.' The following is an extract from a statement to the House of Commons in 2004 by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education and Skills.
'The department knows the national position is varied. The majority of LEAs have a primary and secondary model but a significant minority operate middle school systems.
We accept that both systems can be effective and we are not aware of any clear research evidence to suggest that one is preferable to the other." More recent educational research by Cambridge University and the Esmée Fairbairn charitable foundation suggests we should be increasing the number of middle schools.
The article also stated the county council was 'defeated by a backbench rebellion egged on by a vocal minority of parents'.
The council commissioned a very expensive consultation regarding this matter, which found that 65 percent of respondents wanted to retain the current system.
Denis Hayllar
Riseley
Romania mania Sir - I'm writing to you after being outraged by your article on page four of February 15 about a gypsy support worker.
From the way this article was written, it seems that the editor is implying that all Romanians are gypsies or that the Romanian language is a gypsy language.
It is definitely not, the Romanian language is not gypsy language and the gypsies that live in Romania have a different mother tongue.
Daniel Gherghel
Winchester Road, Sandy
Editor's comment: The article included a faithful reproduction of the advertisement. By including the instruction (sic) we intended readers to realise that this may indeed have been a mistake in the original.
Sharia shockers Sir - Asif Nadim makes a very rational and reasoned case for Sharia law (letters, February 24) by insisting that women have had equal rights under Islam for more than 1,400 years.
But try telling that to Jamila who was stoned to death in Afghanistan for merely being in the company of a man who wasn't a close relative.
Try telling it to Bariya Ibrahim Magazu who was raped by three men in Nigeria and then punished with 180 lashes for indulging in premarital sex.
Try telling it to Princess Misha who was publicly beheaded in Saudi Arabia for having the gall to marry the man she loved.
Try telling it to the young Somali girls who are routinely forced to undergo female circumcision.
Try telling it to the British-born teenagers coerced into marriage with men they do not love and may not even have met.
Try telling it to the British women, and there have been several, murdered for bringing 'dishonour' on their Muslim families.
Given the choice between all of that and being displayed 'as a commodity on the bonnet of a Ford Fiesta', as Asif Nadim says (interestingly, women in Saudi are not even allowed to drive a car let alone pose on one), then I think I know which most 'wise' females in the western world would choose.
Charlie Garth
Flitwick Road, Ampthill
This is never truer than the small article on nuclear power (February 24) written by Tony Mitchell.
He argues for desert generators and then in the next sentence asks for the development of decentralised systems, an amusing contradiction of ideas.
It is worth noting that 600 wind generators are required, assuming the wind blows day in day out, to replace one nuclear or gas powered generator.
Chris Meadows Dart Road, Bedford.
Sound sentiments but absurd argument Sir - While I wholeheartedly agree with most of the sentiments expressed in the article by Tony Mitchell, unfortunately he seems to have fallen into that most common trap of exaggerating his thesis to the point of making it ridiculous.
It is true that should considerable global warming occur then it will have a significant effect on certain species of this planet but to assert, as apparently he does, that all life may end is blatantly absurd.
The only way that life could be rendered extinct here would be in the event of all the water on Earth evaporating.
Should we ever reach the state where we have burned all the oil and coal deposits available to us, the rise in atmospheric temperature would still be comparatively small, certainly nowhere near enough to boil away our oceans.
No, the only effect which global warming will have is to eliminate a comparatively small number of flora and fauna which cannot adapt to the rise in temperature, and whether this is important depends upon your individual standpoint.
As for the major effects of long term global warming, if indeed it does exist, its immediate effect will be to cause considerable discomfort to a great many of the human race, which could well be considered as poetic justice were it not for the fact that those who will suffer most are the very people who have done the least to bring it about.
RT Burnapp, Goldington Road, Bedford
Talk to Mid Beds Sir - David Reeves, Labour Party Parliamentary Candidate for Mid Beds, raised some concerns last week that there could be too many new homes built in Mid Bedfordshire.
He will no doubt be aware of the pressure from Central Government on local authorities to meet and exceed housebuilding targets.
The TalktoMidBeds consultation is Mid Beds District Council's most wide-ranging to date and aims to involve local people in deciding how and where central Government housebuilding targets should be met.
Four hundred sites have been submitted to us by developers and landowners.
Only a small fraction of these will be needed to meet housebuilding and job creation targets. The purpose of the TalktoMidBeds consultation is to gain the views of local people on all these sites before we decide which of them might be suitable for development.
Over the next six months or so we will be using the comments made to decide which are the most appropriate sites to take forward. Consultation ends on April 4, so we would encourage everyone to visit the website (www.talktomidbeds.co.uk) or come to their local exhibition to have their say.
Simon Andrews
Development plans team leader
Mid Beds District Council
Sir - On its TalktoMidBeds website, the district council states that the sites which are currently the subject of the public consultation for new housing and employment are 'not the council's preferred sites or sites that the council has chosen'.
It says these sites have been submitted for consideration by developers and landowners. Surely this is a shocking admission? We have elected councillors to serve the needs and the good of their local communities, not to satisfy the desires and the wallets of developers.
It is widely accepted that many of the housing failures and abominations of the last 50 years have been brought about by developer-led developments. I urge all your readers who care about preserving the character and the integrity of local communities to tell the council not to listen to developer-led proposals which inevitably overlook local needs in the pursuit of profit.
Jerry Fitch
The Coppins, Ampthill
Relief at centre decision Sir - In response to Paul Rowntree's letter (Centre site spot on, February 24), the fact of the matter is that the proposed site for the leisure centre on the Millennium Park in Flitwick would have increased the number of cars going through our town on our already congested roads, not least the A5120.
The UK is experiencing an increase in respiratory diseases and in particular asthma, especially in young people.
Your correspondent might have a point in so much that a major contributor to asthma is vehicle exhaust fumes but he wants to expose the most vulnerable by supporting siting the proposed leisure centre opposite a school.
The environmental value of the Millennium Park as is cannot be overstated in its role of mitigating the effects of air pollution.
The present site may be inconvenient for a few people but it has to be remembered that it is in the right position for the majority of users.
It does not add to the vehicular traffic through the town and the consequent decrease in air quality of the vast majority of Flitwick residents.
The last thing Flitwick needs is an increase in vehicular traffic through the town.
Fiona Steele Secretary,
Flitwick-at-the-Crossroads Residents' Action Group
Sir - Many Flitwick residents will be relieved that the decision has been taken not to build a new leisure centre on the Millennium Park in the centre of Flitwick.
However, many questions need to be answered and the views of local people need to be taken into account before any other leisure centre scheme is considered.
As most people know, I was against the project from the beginning. I felt it was deeply flawed and not in the best interests of Flitwick residents.
My main objection was I felt it wrong to use the one open space we have left in the centre of Flitwick to build a leisure centre. It should be left as open space.
I also thought it wrong for Flitwick residents to have to pay half the build cost and supply the land when they make up less that 20 per cent of the total customer base.
I was also disappointed with the four conditions demanded by Mid Beds District Council, the town council's partner in the scheme, which were as follows: Flitwick would pay half the build cost, ie £5m, plus £1.2m for a bowling alley and softball pitch.
The district would keep all the revenue generated by the centre.
It would have sole management of the centre, with Flitwick having only an advisory role.
The district also wanted half the profit from the sale of the current leisure site, which is owned by the town.
You could be forgiven for thinking the district council was trying to pick the pocket of Flitwick residents.
Flitwick deserves better than this.
We also deserve a better town centre than the one we have and the one on offer and we must fight to get it.
Cllr Steve Mitchell
Lib Dem Flitwick East
Sir - On behalf of Mid Beds District Council I wish to reassert our commitment to building a new leisure centre in Flitwick and the west of the district.
We are now looking at different ways to provide this, however it is not likely to be on the Millennium Park in Flitwick.
Mid Beds was surprised during the autumn when Flitwick Town Council made its latest in a series of demands but has tried negotiating since.
Originally the new leisure centre was to be located on the present Steppingley Road site but then, without consultation, the town council moved it to Millennium Park. Clearly it was out of step with their residents about that.
Two weeks ago Mid Beds wrote to Flitwick Town Council asking it to revert to the original business plan put together in 2006 otherwise we could not support the project going ahead.
Under the current arrangement Mid Beds keeps the revenue from the leisure centre but also provides contract supervision and takes any financial risk, which it has done for the last 20 years.
During this time Mid Beds has turned what was a loss-making sports hall into a leisure centre which provides facilities to more than 6,000 members in the west of the district and creates a surplus used to support other leisure activities.
Any new centre was always to be funded equally by Mid Beds and the town council putting in £5m each, with the town council contributing the land as part of this package.
However, the town council wanted to cut Mid Beds' 150-year lease on the Steppingley Road site (with 144 years to run) to a shorter 25-year lease. Mid Beds said it was prepared to accept a minimum 99-year lease but needed to protect its £5m. investment.
Stephen Mitchell has a short memory - we are the custodians of the facility, not its plunderers.
It was Mid Beds who bailed out the leisure centre 20 years ago and we have repaired, refurbished and expanded it since then.
We employ staff to oversee the contract and our property and legal teams will work on the contracts and design of the new centre.
I want to say once again we are committed to creating a new leisure centre in Flitwick and the west of the district with improved facilities and will be consulting on this in due course.
Anita Lewis
Leisure, culture and safer communities portfolio holder
Mid Beds District Council
Unkind letter not from me Sir - As John Smith of High Street Sharnbrook, I read with particular interest the letter from John Smith, of Mill Road, Sharnbrook, headed 'Butcher just a whinger with an attitude problem' in your edition of February 24.
Whatever view I may take of a situation, I would never write such an unkind letter. I prefer to devote my time and energy to positive things that help the whole community.
Unfortunately, some of your readers have not noticed the Mill Road address and have attributed the remarks to me.
I had always thought that I was the only John Smith resident in Sharnbrook.
I have been through the full electoral roll for Mill Road and cannot find a John Smith listed.
I've also asked my friends who live in that part of the village and none of them has heard of another John Smith. I do hope that the letter is not from someone sheltering behind a pseudonym.
John W Smith
High Street, Sharnbrook
Sir - With regard to the new pharmacy in Sharnbrook, Alan Wilson and his wife are fully entitled to sell their butcher's shop in Sharnbrook to whoever they like.
They have run it very well for some 18 years and have been great supporters of our community. Alan Wilson was given a Certificate of Commendation by the police a few months ago for his brave and prompt action in their support when the Co-op was burgled.
People who oppose his action are equally entitled to tell him so to his face, although their real quarrel is with the Government whose regulations they dislike. The one person who sent him a very unpleasant anonymous letter should be ashamed of himself.
You published a letter from a John Smith of Mill Road. The Electoral Register does not list anyone of that name living there. The John Smith who lives in our High Street was not the author.
Michael Collis MBE
Manor Farm Way, Sharnbrook
Political hypocrisy Sir - It was with interest that I read Cllr Dave Lewis's comments on free for all cashpoints that spouts hypocrisy.
Cllr Lewis talks about tackling poverty and social exclusion yet he remains silent on post office closures by his own party in Government.
The only post office in his Kempston East Ward was closed a few years ago and now another in Springfield is marked for closure. I wonder if he will sign our party's petition to keep this and other post offices.
Will he ask the Government to revert pensions back to post offices? Elderly citizens were forced by this Government to open bank accounts so the Government could close post offices.
I suggest if Cllr Lewis cares about the deprived then he tells his party to stop closing post offices which will be a start to Social Inclusion.
Steve Collins
Kempston Conservatives
St Matthews Close Kempston
To a very special mum Sir - Like many children we believe our mother is something very special and we couldn't wish for anyone better to love and care for us.
Until this year, when she retired to care for our father, who you acknowledged a few weeks ago as waiting for a liver transplant, she was a full-time teacher. She is also a very active borough councillor.
Despite the fact that she always seems to be working from the moment she gets up until she retires at night she will immediately stop and give us her undivided attention for as long as is necessary.
I, Kate, have just finished university and my two brothers, Kevin and Jack, have 18 months to go while the youngest, Jo-Lynne, will soon be following a similar path.
But we all know that our mother is at the end of a phone and we readily use it on a daily basis to seek her out and remain a large part of our lives.
We would be chastised by our mother if we entered the commercial world of Mother's Day and so it has always been home-made cards, poems and pictures.
However for once she can be treated as she truly deserves as for the very first time as a mother her birthday falls on the same day.
Happy Birthday Sue.
Kate, Kevin, Jack and Jo-Lynne Oliver
Loveridge Avenue, Kempston
There's a place for religion Sir - I don't understand this talk of sharia law.
We used to have religious laws in this country, never were there so many burnings and torturings of those not of the True Faith.
It took many centuries and much courage by the best minds to evolve the legal system we have now. This gives equality to all, whatever their faith, lack of faith, colour, gender or sexuality.
Do we really want to have religious laws again? The devout will always seek to impose their faith on the rest of us.
But the place for religion is in the temple, mosque, church and in the home.
It does not belong in the law.
Kim Northwood,
Armstrong Close, Wilstead
Three cheers for tiers Sir - I am writing to correct a couple of misconceptions and factual inaccuracies in your article last week regarding the council's desire to abolish our current three tier education system.
It stated: 'At present, Bedfordshire is one of the few counties in Britain with three-tier (lower, middle, upper) schools, a system which is believed to hamper educational development.' The following is an extract from a statement to the House of Commons in 2004 by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education and Skills.
'The department knows the national position is varied. The majority of LEAs have a primary and secondary model but a significant minority operate middle school systems.
We accept that both systems can be effective and we are not aware of any clear research evidence to suggest that one is preferable to the other." More recent educational research by Cambridge University and the Esmée Fairbairn charitable foundation suggests we should be increasing the number of middle schools.
The article also stated the county council was 'defeated by a backbench rebellion egged on by a vocal minority of parents'.
The council commissioned a very expensive consultation regarding this matter, which found that 65 percent of respondents wanted to retain the current system.
Denis Hayllar
Riseley
Romania mania Sir - I'm writing to you after being outraged by your article on page four of February 15 about a gypsy support worker.
From the way this article was written, it seems that the editor is implying that all Romanians are gypsies or that the Romanian language is a gypsy language.
It is definitely not, the Romanian language is not gypsy language and the gypsies that live in Romania have a different mother tongue.
Daniel Gherghel
Winchester Road, Sandy
Editor's comment: The article included a faithful reproduction of the advertisement. By including the instruction (sic) we intended readers to realise that this may indeed have been a mistake in the original.
Sharia shockers Sir - Asif Nadim makes a very rational and reasoned case for Sharia law (letters, February 24) by insisting that women have had equal rights under Islam for more than 1,400 years.
But try telling that to Jamila who was stoned to death in Afghanistan for merely being in the company of a man who wasn't a close relative.
Try telling it to Bariya Ibrahim Magazu who was raped by three men in Nigeria and then punished with 180 lashes for indulging in premarital sex.
Try telling it to Princess Misha who was publicly beheaded in Saudi Arabia for having the gall to marry the man she loved.
Try telling it to the young Somali girls who are routinely forced to undergo female circumcision.
Try telling it to the British-born teenagers coerced into marriage with men they do not love and may not even have met.
Try telling it to the British women, and there have been several, murdered for bringing 'dishonour' on their Muslim families.
Given the choice between all of that and being displayed 'as a commodity on the bonnet of a Ford Fiesta', as Asif Nadim says (interestingly, women in Saudi are not even allowed to drive a car let alone pose on one), then I think I know which most 'wise' females in the western world would choose.
Charlie Garth
Flitwick Road, Ampthill
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