PUBLIC SERVANTS: THE issue of pay for the public services has always been a difficult call. The police are no different to many, like nurses and the Armed Forces, facing risks and pressures, often in the limelight and the target of scrutiny.

The public expects to be protected and to feel secure from a ruthless force, but this all comes at a cost. There are great demands on the public purse. We are living longer and for those of us who may not be following the lifestyle we should, health care costs are increasing.

The police do a great public service, but so do many others. Is it not time to have parity for those in the public service?

Instead of pitching one public service professional against another, we should perhaps decide how we value those public servants.

We are reminded of the risks which face police officers through PC Joe Carroll, a long-serving and diligent officer with Northumbria Police. While as yet we are unable to comment about the circumstances of his death, he was nevertheless the victim while serving the community.

In apprehending someone and taking them for routine questioning risks would be expected, but fatality would surely be a remote possibility.

But firefighters and nurses are not without risks in their jobs. The plight of PC Carroll and other police officers who have been killed while carrying out their duties raises questions about what we expect of our public servants. While pay does not in any way compensate for the loss of life, financial reward needs to equate to risk to life and limb. - Bernie Walsh, Coxhoe, Durham.

NO THANKS, OFFICER

TO the unnamed serving police officer in a North-East force (HAS, Apr 19) - I don't need a reality check with reference to claims made by his Police Federation spokesperson.

Paperwork is to be found in all professions and I agree it can be time consuming. However, the paperwork is a safeguard and a protection to both officers and the public alike.

I believe that the police have one of the finest sick and injury allowance schemes in the country and if £265 represents 11 per cent of salary I rest my case on the subject of annual salaries.

As for my pension contributions, they were six per cent to mature in 40 years. How long for yours?

I support his entitlement, as he puts it, to take a second job and I am delighted there are many safeguards to ensure his duties are not compromised.

As for being sworn at and spat on at 3.30am, did he not realise what the job entailed when he took it on?

I thank him for his invitation to become my personal tutor if I joined the force. However, I shall have to decline through age, health and the fact that I pay taxes to have the more unpleasant and onerous duties in life done by those who generously undertake to do them on behalf of me and the rest of society. - David T Colling, Bishop Auckland.

EDUCATION PLANS

I READ the article by Keith Mitchell (Echo, Apr 10) concerning the Government's plans for education. I belong to Middle England, have four young children and I share Mr Mitchell's concerns.

To win Middle England there is little point in expressing compassion for those children who would be excluded by the Government's reforms. The real point is to explain what sort of society will evolve out of this, a society in which Middle England will need to build higher and higher gates to protect itself from "undesirables", a society which will be a ripe breeding ground for revolution and revolt, and a society which can foster its very own suicide bombers.

The human heart is not by nature disposed to generosity and compassion. If Mr Mitchell desires a fair and equal system of education, he must appeal to the minds of Middle England and demonstrate that his idea is the only rational and civilised plan for any society. - Mrs S Ridgway, Barningham, Richmond, North Yorkshire.

REFORM NEEDED

YOUR editorial (Echo, Apr 10) together with the article by the former director of education for Durham County Council, Keith Mitchell, raises many issues.

If the current system of education in Durham County is perfect, why are the results at GCSE level below the national average and why do so few pupils enter higher education?

The days when headteachers and staff were obliged to be card-carrying members of the Labour Party may be long gone, but the political interference and the introvert, parochial approach to education in the North-East have committed generations of school-leavers to, at best, low-level, unskilled employment.

Education should raise expectations, broaden horizons and create opportunities, but with many County Durham schools under-achieving and suffering from outdated political dogma and institutionalised inertia, pupils will continue to be disadvantaged.

Are pupils in the North-East less intelligent than their counterparts in Middle England? Hardly, but until there is a radical reform of current educational practices and policies they will remain the poor relation. - P Holmes, Barnard Castle.

TRADE LEADERSHIP

IN the light of the various campaigns run by your paper to try and secure jobs and investment in the region, it is disappointing to see the negative coverage of the leadership shown by the County Durham Development Company with regard to securing overseas contracts and investment through a trade mission to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (Echo, Apr 19).

In my opinion, the company is showing the real leadership that is all too often lacking in the region by pulling together a group of businesses and organisations with a view to drawing resources to the North-East from one of the world's richest and fastest growing economies.

As somebody who knows from experience that business travel is far from glamorous, I wish the businesses on the trade mission much success, salute the leadership being shown in County Durham and urge the rest of North-East England to join County Durham in shrugging off parochialism and realising that we operate in a global economy, and the only way to prosper is by looking beyond our own boundaries. - David Johnston, Operations Director, Thorn Lighting Limited, Spennymoor.

IMMIGRATION

INEVITABLY, the immigration chickens come home to roost as realisation dawns that successive British governments of both main parties have for many years been sitting on their hands while hundreds of thousands of immigrants made their way (legal and otherwise) into this country, with no effective regulation or control, nor even an approximate statement of their number.

People who express misgivings about the size of this human tide can take little comfort from Home Office responses stressing the benefits these incomers bring, and suggesting that scaremongers and racists should not be listened to.

Now we learn (Echo, Apr 17) that many Labour supporters are showing some interest in the BNP. Let government and opposition parties beware. Immigration and population are subjects in the public eye. Political leaders must make clear their views and proposals. - Bob Jarratt, Caldwell, Richmond.

CARING ABOUT SCHOOL'S FUTURE: IN response to the letter, Who Cares? (HAS, Apr 11), I would like to reassure your correspondent that there are a great many people who care about the future of Eastbourne School.

I, along with the other governors, care very much about the school and its pupils and we want nothing more than to see them succeed in all that they do.

I appreciate the frustration felt by the parents of those children who want to get on with their education, but find their efforts spoilt by the actions of a few disengaged young people.

However, I would hate anyone to think the school was not focused on improving the situation.

The new headteacher, along with the staff and the governors, is working ha rd to help turn the school's fortunes around, but we need the support of all parents and pupils to make sure we achieve our aims.

The plans for an academy for Eastbourne will give pupils and teachers the very best facilities and equipment to help them achieve their potential.

The academy will also provide facilities for the whole community, ensuring the school is at the heart of the community and everyone can be proud of it.

With the Church of England as sponsor, the academy will be an open and inclusive school where pupils from all faiths will be able to work and learn together.

Stability at Eastbourne School is not being helped by constant negativity in the local Press. If it depressed me, I can only guess how it makes parents, pupils and staff feel. I hope the whole of Darlington can now get behind Eastbourne School and support it as it moves into a new era.

With your backing, I am sure Eastbourne can become a school the town can be proud of. - Councillor Veronica Copeland, chairwoman of Eastbourne School governing body.

FAST RESPONSE ALAN Macnab should think himself honoured to have his reply to D Ashton's letter about secondary education in Darlington (HAS, Apr 11) printed on April 15. Supporters of Share (Support Hurworth and Rural Education) in Hurworth regularly had to wait two or three weeks to find our responses to the council et al published in the Echo. A case of blatant political censorship against those who dared question the council line? - Peter Dodd, Hurworth, Darlington.

WASTE DISPOSAL THE decision on Darlington's future method of waste disposal has critical long-term implications for the environment, health as well as financial.

Typically, the council's Labour Cabinet meeting in secret selected its preferred option from the seven presented by the consultants before any public consultation.

Are we now going to get an expensive council exercise to try and persuade us to support Labour's choice without giving us all the facts and then call it consultation?

We believe that full details of all seven options should be published with the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Only in this way can we have a proper debate on this important topic. In the meantime, the council can reduce the amount going to landfill by increasing recycling. With modern packaging methods, recycling cardboard and plastic would have a considerable impact. - Brian Fiske, Press Officer, Darlington Liberal Democrats.

NOISY PRIESTGATE DARLINGTON Borough Council should clearly remember that a year ago it was given specific advice, both in planning consultation documents and again by separate letters, that a serious noise problem would occur in Priestgate due to the introduction of 120 buses per hour into the street. So this is not an unforeseen problem. Foolishly, the council chose to ignore the advice as well as its own environmental standards on noise pollution under the attitude of "this is what you are going to get, like it or not".

Hence, we can now see why the local businesses in Priestgate are not very happy with the new environment.

Perhaps an elected mayor would have prevented this fiasco and conveyed some common sense to the council. - L Hume, Darlington.

PEDESTRIAN HEART ONCE again, Councillor David Lyonette asks the public to be patient (Echo, Apr 14) while Darlington Borough Council makes the already noisy and smelly situation in Priestgate even worse. Coun Lyonette is, no doubt, a firm believer in the Nimby principle. The Department of Transport still remains silent notwithstanding the efforts of MP Alan Milburn whom I have now requested to refer the matter to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (P&HS).

I have lodged a fresh complaint with the Local Government Ombudsman, which also falls to be dealt with by the P&HS Ombudsman, namely, that in making the application for consent to remove the railings and steps at High Row the council was economical with the truth and that the Northern Government Office was misled. - John W Antill, Darlington.