I WORK as a payroll clerk in city of Sunderland Council and I am also an activist for Unison but on July 16 and 17 next week I will not be at work. I will be going out on strike.

My colleagues and I at City of Sunderland council work hard to keep your streets clean, to care for the elderly and vulnerable, to help educate children and to provide our community with lesiure facilities such as, swimming pools and parks. Despite our hard work we are expected to stomach year after year of real pay cuts, to the point of which we are the worst paid of all staff in the public sector.

Going on strike is not a decision that I have taken lightly. I started working in local government to be able to contribute to my community but enough is enough. The pay rise offered is just an extra £7.50 a week. For the majority of workers this is nowhere near enough to cope with the huge hikes in the cost of fuel, food and housing I have seen recently and means I have been left with little choice but to go on strike.

We are not just going out on strike for this year's pay. If we don't go out this year it will cause more hardship next year and the year after that and so on. We save the Government billions in efficiency savings and this is how they repay us with a pay cut year after year.
Stand up and be counted for enough is enough.
Gemma Taylor,
Moorsfield,
Houghton

Fantasy politics
IT has never been accepted by the Sunderland Labour Party that the economy of this country was improving and in quite decent shape in the year or two before 1997. Inflation and unemployment were falling and interest rates had reached a new low.

So, let us join their fantasy politics and from 1997 to 2006 allow them to credit Cowdenbeath's finest for the whole show. It was not the legacy of Kenneth Clarke as Conservative Chancellor and it was not an upturn in the world economy; it was good old Gordon who did it all by himself, "just like that."

The wheel has now turned and how and the country is in trouble. There is no need to list the price rises and state of the housing market. But there has also been a U-turn politically to Labour spin and we heard it in the council chamber recently from Labour councillors. Suddenly it's the world's fault, nothing at all to do with the last ten years or any mismanagement. It is now Gordon "due to the downturn in the global economy" Brown, when the excuses are made.

The truth of this situation is of course that Brown was no miracle worker on the economy. He was lucky. He came in at a good time. But he wanted and got all the credit. He was ungracious and contemptuous of others, many of whom are in his own party.

Gordon Brown, through his political arrogance and disrespect to others, has placed himself and his party in a terrible mess, as witnessed by recent disastrous election results locally and nationally. The buck stops with Gordon Brown.
Coun Michael Dixon (Conservative),
St Chad's Ward

What consultation?
THERE was a public inquiry dealing with support and objections to the Sunderland Unitary Development Plan from November 1996 to February 1997 in committee room six at the Sunderland Civic Centre.

This public inquiry was conducted without the press present and with the public unwelcome.

At one of the sessions, there was an objection submitted to the Government inspector by Joplings. Their team of a QC, a solicitor and a town planning expert, were objecting to any retail development to the west of St Michael's Way as being "an out of town retail development" and contrary to the city council's policy for the Sunderland city centre retail development policies.

Objecting to the objection of Joplings legal team were a QC, a solicitor and another town planning expert acting for Arriva, which owned the land between Trimdon Street and Farringdon Row, right down to the river bank.

Arriva wanted to put large retail stores on their site (PC World, B and Q, etc).

The dispute arose because the then Joplings management saw the westward drift of retail businesses as a threat that would leave Joplings on the margins of the town centre, that their business would be upstaged if planning permission for the Arriva project was granted.

An impasse was quickly reached, so both parties requested a short recess and everyone, except the one and only member of the public, moved into the corridor, where a very private meeting was convened.

Was the development of Sunderland city centre to the east of John Street and the large shopping area at Trimdon Street determined in the corridor outside of the Civic Centre committee rooms? Both Joplings and Arriva got the sort of city centre development they wanted to their mutual advantage.

We are now in 2008 and an Echo report says that a new bridge for the Wear has received the nod from ministers for a £104million project before the public are informed as to whether or not the bridge and its location are fit for purpose.

Where and when was the public consultation?
R McQuillan,
Cranberry Road,
Sunderland

Telegrams brought joys and sorrows
I'VE launched a global search for former telegram boys/telegraphists to keep alive memories of a bygone era. I've set up a website and message board to record stories and memories from old telegram boys and telegraphists around the world.

In just a few months we have had many old post office messengers/telegraphist who have signed up to the site from across the UK as well as New Zealand, Thailand, Los Angeles and Spain.

Most messenger boys began working for the General Post Office, as it was then, at the age of 14 or 15 and were the bearers of some of the best and the worst news. In the days before phones, texts and emails, when a telegram was the only way of getting a message to someone on the same day, the boys were dispatched on foot, bicycle or motorcycle.
They delivered news from weddings and pools wins to strikes, funerals and informing widows of lost servicemen.

The messenger service was disbanded in 1981 but the new website hopes to reunite old friends and create a piece of history which will keep the tradition of the telegram boys alive forever.

We have held reunions in the city for the last four years with hundreds of old boys attending, some well into their 80s. Many have signed up to the website and put their stories on the messageboard.

We are holding another reunion on October 4, 2008, the same day that I started the post office 32 years ago delivering telegrams and it will also be around a year the website for telegram messenger boys was started .

There are also old photos of telegram boys on the website as well as pictures from the recent reunions.

Anyone wanting to share their stories and photos on the site can log on to www.birminghamsandsclub.co.uk or if they have not got access to a computer or Internet they could write down their stories and memories of their time or any events during their time as a telegram messenger boy or telegraphist and then send it to me I would gladly put their story on the website for them. They can write to me at the address below.
Roger Green,
Midlands Special Hand Stamp Centre,
Royal Mail Birmingham,
St Stephens Street,
Birmingham B6 4AA

Pushing buttons
WELL it seems I am pushing all the right buttons, based on the number of responses I'm getting from the Tories to my letters.

The latest, to date comes from Coun Alan Wright (What absolute tosh! – July 4) and it has him fuming.

I know annual council was on May 14, and an amended letter was sent to the Echo on June 6 (I'm sure the Echo can verify this).

You must have very good eyesight because according to the minutes of that meeting, you weren't even in attendance.
What was that about rewriting history?

Feeling bitter? No, Feeling better? Oh yes.
Bob Price,
Rydal Mount,
Fulwell,
Sunderland

I WOULD like to thank my family and friends who contributed to the RVI Ward 6A Comfort Fund in lieu of flowers at the funeral of my darling son Iain Etchells. The final sum was excellent – £505.15. I would like to publicly thank the bone marrow transplant team, Ward 6A and 6B and Ward 8 at the RVI. During the last six years Iain received such excellent care, attention and treatment from all the doctors and nurses on this haematology unit.

They were so caring and gave invaluable support to me, without which I would have found it difficult to get through this time.
C Etchells,
East Boldon

COULD I please mention a charity night we are having in the Sappers Club, Roker Avenue on Friday, July 18. It is in memory of John Gilstin (my dad), who died in April and all proceeds go to the Northern Brainwave Appeal. Tickets on sale at £1.50 behind the bar or pay on the night. There is a cabaret, bingo and raffles. It should be a good night.
L Taylor,
Roker Baths Road,
Sunderland

COULD I say thank you to all the staff on Ward D46 (bay 5) Sunderland Royal Hospital for their care and attention during my stay there. The care was excellent and the smiling faces made my day. If others could reach the standard of D46, Sunderland Royal would always be the top of the league.
Bob Patterson,
Alston Crescent,
Sunderland

Luftwaffe never stood a chance against Plains Farm Dads' Army
IN reply to Billy Rose: The reason the Prospect Hotel was not bombed by the Luftwaffe was because it was protected by the Plains Farm Home Guard (Dads' Army).

The Home Guard would assemble every Sunday morning in the Prospect Car Park then, with rifles, they would march off to the Springwell woods and fields (before the housing estate was built).

They had no ammunition but they did have strips of cardboard, the sort found in Christmas crackers, and they would point the rifles at each other and pull the strips of cardboard to simulate the sound of rifle shots.

Just before 12 o'clock they would then return and parade in front of the Prospect. We kids would sit on the Prospect wall and watch them perform their precision drill and dead on 12 o'clock (opening time) the sergeant, Billy Begg, the Plains Farm butcher, would shout: "Dismissed!" And they would promptly disappear into the Prospect bar.

Although the German Luftwaffe tried many times to bomb the Prospect Hotel they never really stood a chance against Plains Farm Home Guard.
Well done lads!
Ex-Primate Road,
Plains Farm

Spooky mystery of ghost workers
WHY, every Sunday do we have to suffer the frustration of diversions and lane closures imposed on us by the scourge of the ghost workers?

The last few Sundays, my family and myself have endured these hurdles as we have ventured afar but we have yet to sight any of the spirited workforce as we drive by their endless rows of the weekend cones.
Who are these mysterious creatures who close lanes all day long, using miles of traffic cones then disappear into the mist in their haunted wagons only to manifest later to retrieve their cones as dusk approaches.

Where are these bogeymen throughout the day when the closed lanes stand deserted?

They arrive in haunted wagons, from the fog, like apparitions of viking ships that torment Norwegian fiords, but with the sole purpose of slowing the traffic while imaginary road maintenance is undertaken?
Is it their quest to impede and hinder drivers before returning to their lairs to await the following weekend when they can return to their haunts and continue their unsettling activities.
David Hepworth,
Hylton Castle,
Sunderland

Stop bus engines
AM I wrong in thinking that buses should not have their engines running while standing at stops for any length of time?

The main culprit of this was a Stagecoach No.12 outside Wilkinsons at 4.45pm.

I had to move outside of the bus shelter. How dare they stop smokers from using them when the fumes from their buses were 20 times worse than any smokers. (I am not a smoker so please do not assume this is sour grapes).

While on the subject of buses there are far too many using that stop. It is a bad corner for traffic from Holmeside and there are often three or four waiting to pick up passengers. How frustrating it must be for bus drivers to cope with.
M Roffe

Political price
Mr CHRIS Mullin MP believes that the reason why politicians are so despised is because people take notice of the tabloid press such as the Daily Express.

I think that Chris Mullin underestimates the intelligence of the British people.

They don't all read tabloid newspapers and most of those who do are well able to separate the wheat from the chaff. Most people know that the majority of MPs are honest, hard-working and well worth the £60,000 a year the job pays.

What niggles many is the fact that a number of his parliamentary colleagues believe that the basic salary is pocket money and all expenses, no matter how trivial, must be met by the taxpayers.

This ranges from buying second homes in London down to paying the window cleaner and the gardener.

We have all been made aware that the annual expenses of some MPs have been more than three times their basic salary.

Sixty years ago, Manny Shinwell said that no one who entered politics could expect to become rich. He was wrong.
RM,
Warwick Drive,
East Herrington,
Sunderland