WESTBOURNE Medical Group's Patient Participation Group would like to point out the following.
We write in support of Dr Peverley's article in the Echo.
We feel strongly against the setting up the two-tier health system in the city.
The general feeling from patients in this practice is that there is no need to set up another surgery in our area.
We feel that the money could best be utilised in the local existing surgeries to provide more services in-house.
As patients we do care about "continuity of care" and feel this is going to be jeopardised under the new system.
We believe that this is the back door route for the private sector to move in and that profits will be drained from the health service and handed to shareholders.
The petition "Save our Surgeries" is currently running in all GP practices. We urge everyone to sign this.
The petition is to be handed to the Prime Minister on the 60th Birthday of the NHS.
Lynda Harrison,
Chairwoman,
C/O Westbourne Medical Group,
Kelso Grove,
Shiney Row

Tories just want to hijack Sunderland
TO try and compare the money being spent across Greater London (population: 7.5million) with Sunderland (population: 300,000) is totally unrealistic and if I might say, very opportunist (Happy with our lot, May 22).
I'm sure if the Olympics were being held in Houghton, not London, that money would have been spent here.
It's been estimated that the Crossrail will add £30billion to the UK economy (TfL figures, May 2006), a 100 per cent return on investment, if construction figures are correct.
We all know that national politics effects local elections. Remember the Poll Tax (which shifted the tax burden from the rich to the poor) and the Tory fall-out locally as a result in the early 90s.
But we know what happened at the next General Election. I'm sure the scrapping of the 10p tax band had an effect on the results.
As for Sunderland being neglected under Labour, I think if you look back you'll find the most damage and neglect was done to Sunderland and its people during the last Tory Government.
Our Labour council helped bring Nissan to Wearside and Margaret Thatcher tried to hijack that for her own ends, but we know the truth.
Our Labour council is trying to improve Sunderland, the services available within it and create a city that can adapt to the changes the future may hold. The Tories know this. They know Sunderland is improving and could have a very prosperous future – that's why they want control, so they can try and claim the credit, just as Margaret Thatcher tried to do with Nissan.
The last time the Tories were in control of Sunderland Council, their big achievement was to demolish the Town Hall in Fawcett Street. How long was that site empty for?
I've say this before on this page, I would have preferred the Vaux Brewery to remain on the Vaux site, but it didn't, and as such we must find a suitable use for the site that complements the city centre.
Had the Tories been in control of the council, would you have allowed Tesco to go ahead and build a giant supermarket on the site?
You say you are happy with your lot? Your councillors certainly didn't look a happy bunch, or at least the handful who bothered to turn up for the annual council meeting on May 16, or the reconvened meeting the following day.
Bob Price,
Rydal Mount,
Fulwell

Two sides to us all
Editing Life's Story:
IS that right?
The angle, I mean.
Is it a right-angle?
It looks all right from here,
but a bit askew from there.
A painting in words.
Could be a masterpiece.
Needs a bit of colour.
A touch of red,
and a bit of blue.
Sadness and gladness.
Everything isn't grey.
Clouds have a silver lining.
That's more like it,
two sides to the same story,
that's life.
The editor is a master craftsman.
The world is his canvas.
Little Billy Craggs

Don't be a snob
I AGREE with Mr Wharton's comments about the parking problems at the new swimming pool.
I think the land adjacent to the pool is maybe going to be used for parking.
However, as the parking at the stadium is only used to its maximum at the most 40 days out of 365, it would be easier to use that.
Obviously he's not in tune with the main sporting activity of the city or he would have chosen a better time to visit.
With regards to his second comment about parking his two-year-old car in Southwick, it seems to have come from the pen of a working class snob.
Every home game I walk from Alexandra Bridge Cars to the stadium. I pass top-of-the-range BMWs, Mercs and Audis etc. parked in the streets. I pass the same cars on the way back. None appear to have been touched in any way,.
Next time he leaves "The Golden Village" to venture to the pool, I would suggest he comes across the Alex Bridge, turns left at the mini-roundabout and drives up and down the terraced streets that lead up to North Hylton Rd. There he'll see vast amounts of 54, 55, 56, 57 and, dare I say it, 58 registration cars.
Don't drive too slowly, though, as someone might have the wheel trims off before he can say asbo.
Don't suppose he's related to Mick The Pen?
John The Realist

Teen booze misery
AT 7pm on Saturday, May 24, approximately 10 to 12 youths of mixed sex, approximately aged 14-15 years old, were witnessed carrying four boxes of Stella Artois lager on Ravensworth on the Tunstall Bank Estate, Ryhope heading towards Rowell and Rachel Close.
My question is, where do they buy their alcohol from?
Who in their right mind would supply these kids with alcohol?
Where are the parents of these kids and where are they consuming it?
It is no wonder the Cheviot Housing Estate is constantly covered in empty broken bottles. And is it any wonder the same estate is declining rapidly, with this sort of behaviour plus the nuisance of youths around on untaxed and uninsured motor bikes?
One final question. Where are the police? Oh yes, I have just remembered – warm and snug in the local cricket club, waiting for the local community to visit them instead of the other way around.
Name and address supplied

Chinese slaughter
THIS month sees the 19th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, China, when peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators were attacked by the Chinese military.
The Tiananmen Mothers, a group which campaigns for a full inquiry into the massacre, has compiled a list of more than 170 people who were killed and at least 70 who were injured.
There are signs that the authorities are relaxing their stance on the massacre. For example, they no longer refer to the peaceful protests as a "counter-revolutionary rebellion". The massacre is now described as a "political incident".
It will be interesting to see if, with the eyes of the world on China in Olympic year, the Tiananmen Mothers will be allowed to hold a memorial ceremony in or near to Tiananmen Square.
Steve Newman,
Wearside Amnesty International,
The Precinct,
Tunstall

Thanks for help
MAY I ,through the medium of the Sunderland Echo, give heartfelt thanks to Bill Cross at Mere Knolls Cemetery and Derek Haynes of Wear View Estate, who supplied me with information regarding my two parents who passed away in 1943.
Thanks to Bill for the dedicated work through the cemetery records that gave me the dates and burial places that have been unknown to date.
And thanks to Derek Haynes, who has a project dedicated to the workers in the Sunderland shipyards and the men who gave their lives, as was the case with my father.
I cannot thank these two men enough, who assisted me and and gave up valuable time that enabled me to fill a lot of gaps in my family life.
Ron Carr,
Washington