London girls worked as hard as anyone else

SIR – I am writing in response to your Land Army article (T&C, Feb 14). I was somewhat offended by the implication that the London girls did not work as hard as others, and that they were not as good.

I too was in the Land Army and also a London girl; we worked long hours in all sorts of weather and worked as hard as anyone else.

I worked with the threshing engine tackle, which was very dirty work, amongst the chaff and dust. Also, I met my husband, a local lad, while out on the threshing work.

I was at the Chimney Corner hostel where most of the girls from London and Yorkshire, also good workers, stayed.

The local girls were actually in the minority.

E Wagstaff
Wilstead Road, Elstow

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Westoning is the litter capital of villages

SIR – I was interested to read the letter from Tom Andrew, of
Greenfield, about their litter (T&C, Feb 14).

Let me tell you that Westoning would win hands down as the litter capital of villages.

Every day I pick up tins, bottles, glasses from the pub, and, if I really try, bags of all sorts. You could fill several wheelie bins and, if you walk up Sampshill, several more.

Am I the only one who sees this, and, more to the point, the only one who cares?

Come on Westoning, open your eyes and get picking.

Wendy Burgess
Park Road, Westoning

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Cars on pavements are more of a hazard

SIR – I read with interest the article, (Opinions, Feb 14), regarding plans by Bedford Borough Council to charge people for leaving their bins out after they had been emptied.

Isn't it time they did something about the cars which are parked on our pavements and are more hazardous than wheelie bins? Come round to Ettrick Drive, Bedford, and you can see them most evenings

Mrs S Gadaby
Ettrick Drive, Bedford

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Police powerless to act over Rope Walk safety?

SIR – My mother-in-law has recently lost her husband and has difficulty sleeping. This is heightened by youngsters using the Rope Walk Retail Park in Bedford as a race track (burning). In spite of many calls to the police by local residents, this still continues, as they seem powerless to act.

Lynford Williams
Bunyan Road, Kempston

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No hope of meeting future housing demand

SIR – The Labour party parliamentary candidate for Mid Beds, David Reeves, takes a pop at Mid Beds District Council (Opinions, Feb 21) for taking on more than our share of the burden in providing "quality affordable" housing.

Recently, a Government projection indicated that our population is due to double over the next 75 years.

Even now they are building on the flood plains. There is no hope of matching the demand for housing at the present rate of increase, unless of course, the Government denies its own instincts and thinks the
unthinkable – some hopes.

John Forster
by email

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Jobs market exploiting migrant workers

SIR – The writer who says the Poles have adapted well to the jobs market in Britain (T&C, Feb 21) misses one point.

With the fall of communism, Poles and other eastern Europeans were promised a better life in their own countries. But, with the average wage of Poland just 280 Euros per month, if you're lucky, many have had to leave their families to come to England to find work.

They sign up with employment agencies and often take on positions on the minimum wage with no sick or holiday pay, but on the understanding they would be afforded the same standard working practices and employment rights as the British worker.

On the contrary, this often is not the case, and workers are kept in the dark over their rights.

The word exploitation comes to mind.

P Begley
Gloucester Road, Bedford

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Reader with too much time on his hands?

SIR – So J Walcot, of Bower Street, (Opinions, Feb 21) is able to recite exact figures for 16 to 24-year-olds claiming each of the various types of social security benefits in the UK?

Might I suggest that he has too much time on his hands?

Andy Huckle
Waterloo Road, Bedford

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Lib Dems underline their high-taxing party status

SIR – I thought I would take the time to write in response to Councillor Headley's letter of criticism (T&C, February 21) against the borough council's 2008/9 budget.

The Liberal Democrats try to claim that the borough council should be "doing more".

Behind this smokescreen, perhaps Coun Headley could explain why the Lib Dems shamefully opposed the budget on February 6, 2008, which included millions of pounds worth of investment. Instead, they once again put point-scoring before principle and 'Focus' headlines before common sense.

For the record, the budget included massive investment to:

** Fully fund free, anytime concessionary travel.
** Save residents' orange waste sacks.
** Improve road, footpath and play areas.
** Boost parish council grants.
** Increase recycling rates.
** Get to grips with illegal traveller encampments.
** Fight climate change and improve air quality.
** Tackle crime and anti-social behaviour in the borough.

We know their poll ratings are dire, but surely even the Liberal
Democrats should have supported the 2008/9 borough council budget.

So, it was the Liberal Democrats who 'missed the opportunity' here and their actions only go to confirm what many fear about them – they are a high-tax party who want to see a whole raft of new taxes brought in to hit borough residents, including a new local income tax and new bin taxes.

Coun Nicky Attenborough
Conservative group leader
Bedford Borough Council

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Appeal to track down rail journey companion

SIR – I am currently at Westminster University and wonder whether your readers can help with my choice of topic for my dissertation.

On a recent train journey (Feb 15), I met an elderly lady who saw I was reading a book about London during the war.

She started to tell me about her father, who was head of the heavy
rescue units in London during the Blitz.

After some research, there seems to be a small amount of documentation about this type of work. She mentioned that she had her father's
photos and some other documents. She also said she was visiting her son who lived in Bedford, and I was wondering about the possibility of getting in touch in the hope of finding her and telling her father's story. Please email d.scarrott@student.westminster.ac.uk if you can help.

Darren Scarrott

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Act now to stop the rot that is the EU

SIR – Well done Mr Barker (T&C, Feb 14) for bringing to our notice
probably the biggest con ever perpetrated on the British people in our history by their politicians, in total defiance of democracy.

Remember this; EU law overrides laws made in Westminster. Our politicians have already handed over responsibility for legislation and
regulations on agriculture, fisheries, trade, industry, labour, employment, immigration, health and safety, transport and human rights, all of which massively affect our daily lives at local level.

These laws are now made in Brussels. They are made by commissioners and bureaucrats that we cannot remove by elections. Our politicians have done this deceitfully, without our authority – it was not in any manifesto – and they are about to hand over more, while at the same time voting themselves a pay rise!

Set to go in the Lisbon Treaty (the old rejected constitution on which all parties promised a referendum) are criminal justice and foreign affairs and the creation of an all powerful unelected, long-term president. It will become a self-amending treaty, enabling it to be changed without any public debate or new treaty.

Additionally, our politicians happily shovel £billions of our money into the EU annually, an organisation so wasteful and corrupt its own auditors have refused to sign off its accounts for 13 years. How many of our politicians would put their hands in their own pockets to fund a company whose auditors did this for one year, never mind 13?

Every time we vote for a Lib Dem or Labour candidate, we are saying, "Yes please. We don't care if we lose the power to govern ourselves; we are quite happy to give you more money for less work."

If we do nothing, if we do not stop this rot, within ten years Britain will be a region of Europe governed by a president, a council of ministers/commissioners and a rubber-stamp EU parliament (it cannot propose legislation even now). Brussels will dictate directly to regional authorities.

If you think this sounds like the old Soviet Union-style dictatorship, you would be right.

Mark Adkin
Putnoe Lane, Bedford

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Talk to Mid Beds about new housing sites

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, (T&C, Feb 21). He will no doubt be aware of the pressure from Central Government on local authorities to meet and exceed house building targets.

The TalktoMidBeds consultation is Mid Beds District Council's most wide-ranging consultation to date and aims to involve local people in deciding how and where Central Government house building targets should be met.

400 sites have been submitted to us by developers and landowners. Only a small fraction of these will be needed to meet house building 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

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Alcohol no more a poison than anything else

SIR – Re: Maurice Lewis' letter 'Gains outweigh loss of revenue from alcohol' (T&C, Feb 14).

For his information, alcohol is no more a poison than anything else, as the Greeks knew. It was among their axioms that no substance was so bland, or so beneficial, that you could not contrive a lethal dose.

As for 'imposing an immediate restriction on the sale of alcohol', and so gladdening the hearts of Mr Lewis and his friends, I fear the cost in policing and hospitalisation would be rather high.

When this was tried in the USA, the effect was to grant an immensely profitable monopoly to organised crime (which has never looked back), while at the same time fostering a contempt for the law among society as a whole – except for certain religious groups.

Chris N Gilmore
Salisbury Street, Bedford