I HAVE spoken to Councillor Denny Wilson and agree with the idea of a ferry, and have been advocating this ever since Micky Dodds was priced out of the North Dock.
This could link up a heritage trail connecting St Michael's (The Minster) with the Sunderland Old Township area (which I understand to be The East End and not Hendon) centred on the old Parish Church and neighbouring Donnison School and Trafalgar Square, all on Church Walk. Add the Exchange Building, the Queen Street Masonic Hall and the old pubs in High Street East and Church Street, the narrow covered alleys down to the quay. Can't you just taste the salt?
Past the site of the old Boddle Well and over the Wear to push history back even further, back to the time of Bede, Biscop and Ceolfrith. Did the Vikings beach their longboats on Roker's golden sands? Did the marauding Scots cross Whitburn Moor on their way to torch St Peter's Church?
You can walk up Cut Throat Dene past a real working windmill to the scene of a Civil War skirmish on Downhill then plunge down to Hylton Castle in its wooded valley.
You may catch a glimpse of a ghostly stable lad, the Cauld Lad of Hylton, on your way through the woods to North Hylton, where the Wear's last ferry plied across the remains of a Roman weir.
We have a great history – don't hide it under a bushel.
Dennis Bulmer,
Sea Road,
Fulwell

We've lost all pride
THE very recent headlines about Peterborough Council litter wardens who evidently have gained, via commission not salary, about £35-a-time out of a fine of £75 or £50 and have made about £30,000-a-year, is interesting.
Certainly, whether it be some adults or mainly teenagers, we have lost civic pride in a throwaway society. Even in our city and certainly in Concord during the secondary school hours, the amount of litter is quite large, in spite of the city council's excellent daily employees.
It is not the first time this has been raised in your newspaper. We now even have Go-ahead's new expensive buses with a receptacle for used bus tickets, in which can be found small plastic soft drink bottles.
In the recent local elections top of the list for concerns locally were antisocial behaviour, illegal graffiti, litter and bus services – albeit absent ones.
We know common sense should prevail in an on-the-spot fine system, if targets are part of this, but I hope the city council will take note as part of a future strategy of listening.
Bill Craddock,
Member, Age Concern,
Donvale Road,
Washington

Are fines legal?
WHAT a carry-on about refuse collection. It's unbelievable the amount of controversy.
What I don't understand is how can councils justify handing out fines and laying down all these laws they make up and pull out of thin air from one week to the next.
Are these legal? I ask this because when people pay Council Tax this is broken down to pay firemen, the police and public health, which must include street cleansing and, more importantly, refuse collection.
Refuse, as far as I can see, is rubbish. Each household pays the governing council to collect this rubbish and what they do with it, whether they sort it and perhaps make a profit or dump it, surely then it is their responsibility.
So surely the public can't be fined and get a criminal record for helping them do the job they paid for.
Of course, I'm all in favour of recycling in all its forms. There is too much waste in the world. But to bring in draconian laws is not the answer.
We had an efficient and profitable recycling depot in Railway Row for many years. In fact, I reckon it to have been one of the best in the country. Why the council, in its wisdom, got rid of it I don't know.
Colin S Wasey,
Wayman Street,
Monkwearmouth

Please pipe down!
HELP is at hand for people like your correspondent J Jackson (Echo, May 26) who along with tens of thousands, if not millions, of others worldwide, is driven to distraction by enforced inescapable piped music.
Pipedown is an organisation which along with UKNA, the umbrella anti-noise group, campaigns for freedom from piped music in public places.
J Jackson is right – it is a waste of time to appeal to the perpetrators of this antisocial abuse – for that is what it is. Therefore, sufferers must write to demand the basic human right to silence from deliberately inflicted unneccesary din.
Details of Pipedown's aims can be obtained from Pipedown, the Campaign for Freedom From Piped Music, 1 The Row, Berwick St James, Salisbury, SR3 4TP. Tel. 01722 790622.
For information send an A5 SAE to the above address. If not interested after receiving information, you will not be further contacted.
Mrs M Hunter,
Washington

Fix our flagstones
WHEN is the highways department of the council going to attend to the very uneven flagstones along Newbottle Street/Sunderland Street?
Or are they waiting for an accident to happen? What price is concrete?
Surely money is not a problem. What about the £14million they were given by Newcastle Airport, or do they not remember?
J Ramshaw,
Ex-Labour

Help us to compile our club's history
RYHOPE Colliery Welfare Football Club was formed in 1892 and were founder members of the Wearside League, in which the club still competes.
The club is the oldest amateur league club in Sunderland and has, over the past 116 years, been represented by tens of thousands of local footballers in sides of which some were successful (four times league winners in the 1960s) and some not so successful (League wooden spoon winners 1985-86,1987-88 and 1998-99).
The club has also been represented by a number of individuals over the years who have progressed to League football and those who weren't as successful, but were just as important to the football club.
The club has just returned from an end-of-season trip to Cork, where it visited St Mary's AFC, which is currently celebrating its 60th season in football.
St Mary's have had their past celebrated in print and presented the Ryhope lads with a copy during the visit. With this in mind, the current committee has decided it is time Ryhope Colliery Welfare FC's story was told and we are, at present, beginning to collect information that can help us piece together the story of our football club.
Can I appeal, on behalf of the football club, to anyone who has any photographs (either team photos or action shots of individuals representing the club), press cuttings, programmes or any other information regarding the club to get in touch with myself on 07875 361023 or Ronnie Crosby on 07931 361123.
Any information that is forthcoming will be returned once it has been used in its original condition. Our aim is to include every photograph we can find in a bid to ensure as many players as possible who have represented the club are included in the club's story.
Chris Lindstedt,
Manager,
Ryhope CW FC

End points scoring
COUN Diane Snowdon, in her letter "We'll be there" (Monday, May 26), once again has shown how Labour spin and rhetoric is still alive in the city.
Coun Snowdon conveniently fails to tell why there was a reduced attendance by Conservative councillors at the reconvened annual council meeting – held on Thursday, May 15, not (as she says in her letter) on May 14, which was the original meeting.
When the adjournment was announced and the time was set for 4pm on May 15 for reconvening the meeting, the Conservative group asked for the time to be set to 6pm so elected members could attend and still honour their work commitments, but this was emphatically refused.
This was for no other reason than trying to limit our attendance and our input to the amendments we had proposed to ensure opposition councillors of all parties were allowed to hold chair or deputy chairs of committees.
Despite there being 27 opposition councillors in this city, which is more than one third of elected councillors, the Labour group still feel it is its God-given right to continue to appoint every key position in the council to a Labour councillor.
Out of the 22 Conservative councillors in the city, 17 have daily work commitments, and when the meeting was reconvened on May 15 two others were on their annual holiday. Many of us have to work so we can pay our mortgages and put food on the table for our families
Perhaps Coun Snowdon agrees with Coun Paul Watson, the leader of the council, that it is time the point-scoring type of politics which has beleaguered the city should finally come to an end.
But I doubt that it will when Coun Watson's words ring hollow with hypocrisy when he refuses to allow other elected parties any key places on committees.
Coun Graham Hall

You selfish parkers
FURTHER to the letter regarding disabled parking in Asda, I and my partner are regular visitors to Asda, particularly on a night.
I am disabled and we always find it difficult to park in disabled bays, owing to able-bodied people parking in them and not having any consideration.
We wrote a letter to Asda complaining and they said there was nothing they could do, as they did not want to upset other customers and would leave it to the consideration of able-bodied drivers not to use disabled bays.
Joy,
Washington

THE Sunderland MS Society would like to thank the customers and staff of Morrisons, Seaburn, for their generosity.
We raised more than £1,240 on April 19.
Michele Paterson,
Redwood Grove,
Sunderland

A FEW weeks ago my car decided to completely go off at the mini- roundabout at Southwick beside the police station.
There were two very kind ladies in a car behind me who stopped and pushed my car over to the pavement.
I would like to say a big thank-you to these ladies for being so kind and helping both me and my two-year-old little girl, who was in the car at the time. There aren't many people like that around. Your help was much appreciated.
Nicola (silver Yaris)

TO Joyce, who came to my assistance with her car after I was stranded in Queen Alexandra Road on Tuesday, May 13, I express the grateful thanks of a nonagenarian.
"Off Course"

MANY thanks to Harry Tyler and friends for the superb show they put on at Farringdon Club.
More than £800 was raised, which will go to local causes. Thanks also to organist, drummer, committee and friends for donations to raffle and Bob Laws for his invaluable support.
Eleanor Sparks,
Farringdon Club