PM answers YOUR questions

Asked by: Helen and Ian Longworth, Beardwood Brow, Blackburn

Non-vocational courses are very important so I perfectly understand your concerns. I know that Jack Straw has personally taken up this issue directly with the education secretary Ruth Kelly. I believe that, given Blackburn College's decision, Blackburn with Darwen Council and the Learning and Skills Council are now considering where these courses should now be provided locally.

REACTION: Mrs Longworth said: "I am very pleased to hear what he has said and I live in hope that we can find some other way of providing these courses. If it is not under the umbrella of Blackburn College, it could become a bits and pieces systems with people all over the place. We are very anxious to retain these classes."

Why is it that when a law is passed, such as the height of leylandii trees, it takes so long for any action to take place. Myself and my neighbours have problems regarding these very high trees depriving us of natural daylight in houses. I have written to the council and the neighbours involved, but to no avail.

Asked by: Jeanne O'Horo, Brookway, Livesey, Blackburn

From June 1, councils will have the power under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act to deal with complaints about high hedges. If there is a complaint to them, they can decide whether a high hedge is having a damaging impact on a neighbour and order them to reduce its size.

Failure to do so could result in the council taking the owner to court where fines of up to £1,000 can be imposed. But a formal complaint should also be a last resort when every effort to resolve disputes amicably has failed. Obviously I don't know the rights and wrongs of your particular case and whether these powers are appropriate but it does show the Government is listening and acting.

REACTION: Mrs O'Horo said: "This is good news. It is something which a lot of people have problems with and it's good it has finally becoming law."

What is to be gained by wasting £200million on building new secondary schools in Burnley and Pendle? This futile exercise is in answer to the Burnley riots and will only force integration, which will breed contempt. It would be better to let integration happen naturally, and the £200million be spent improving existing schools. There would be no heartbreak for teachers, no 10 years of disruption to pupils, and what guarantee is there that these schools will be maintained in the future?

Asked by: Mrs Pat Jones, Bridgefield Street, Hapton

I doubt whether the children who will attend these wonderful new schools will share your view that this is a waste of money. I'm proud of our record and sustained investment this government is making in education. This amounts, for example, to an extra £890 per pupil in real terms since 1997 in Burnley and Pendle.

It's investment in extra teachers, books and computers which helps to explain the significant improvements in results in local schools.

Thanks to the hard work of teachers and pupils, for example, the number of 11-year-olds in Burnley and Pendle who now reach the proper standard in English is 74.8per cent in Pendle and 76.2per cent in Burnley. Still not good enough, of course, but a dramatic improvement on the 59per cent who reached this level in Burnley and 61per cent who did across Pendle in 1997.

We are also investing record sums to modernise and rebuild our schools across the country. When we came to power we inherited a situation where too many of our children were being taught in out-dated and often crumbling buildings.

The huge investment we are making in new secondary schools and a new sixth-form college in Burnley and Pendle is just part of that programme."

REACTION: Mrs Jones said: "Well I think it is prattle. He is proud of the 76per cent who read and write, but doesn' t mention the 24per cent who can't.

Education has been grossly neglected for years and they haven't found a solution for it in Burnley and Pendle yet."

My 78-year-old mother is in hospital with a bad back. I had to bring in an extra pillow for her because there was a shortage, and blankets because the quilts were dirty. For a bad back, she ended up in the Ear, Throat and Nose ward of Blackburn Royal Infirmary which doesn't have a working shower. Is this acceptable? What will you do about it?

Asked by: Janet Rammell, Woodfield Avenue, Accrington

I will make sure the hospital, and your local MP, know about the complaint because everyone, including your mother, deserves a good standard of care.

I don't pretend that the service in the NHS is perfect in every sense, and there are real improvements to be made. That is what our investment in the NHS is so important. The best of our health service is a match for any health service in the work thanks to the commitment of staff in the NHS. I want to ensure that we see this spread right across the country and our health service so it is a world class service for all.

I am extremely pleased that as part of our hospital building plan, work is now well under way on Blackburn's new hospital and that major investment into Burnley General Hospital is also well under way."

REACTION: Mrs Rammell said: "I am not impressed to be quite honest. The majority of the nurses are committed at the hospital, but some aren't, and the conditions there are terrible. The questions haven't been addressed. Where is the promise it won't happen again?"

Why do phone masts require full planning consent in Scotland and Northern Ireland by not in England? The scientists who you use to say masts are safe are the same people who said living near power lines wasn't bad for you either.

Asked by: Dennis Cannon, Moor Lane, Padiham

This is a difficult issue and there is a conflict here. People want to use their mobile phones but they don't want phone masts near their homes.

Some phone masts already go through the full planning process if, for example, they are large or in conservation areas.

We know, however, that there is real concern about the siting of phone masts which is why the Government commissioned an independent study to look at any evidence of potential health risks and how effectively the planning rules are working.

It was, I can assure you, a very thorough investigation of all the available evidence by a group of independent experts, and their research continues.

By they found no evidence so far that mobile phone masts are linked to public health risks.

We are, however, listening and understand that people need to have confidence in the planning system. And I can promise we are keeping this under close review."

REACTION: Mr Cannon said: "It is nothing I haven't heard before. There is nothing to explain why there are different rules in Ireland and Scotland. There needs to be independent research now, not information from five years ago. I am sorry I have not had better answers."

How can we be sure you will listen to us in the future? You didn't listen to us on Iraq and won't admit that your basis for war was dodgy. Why does Labour prefer to treat us to anecdotes about Jack Straw and Alastair Campbell's footballing rivalry rather than telling us what is going on with policy?

Asked by: Mr A Randell, Whalley New Road, Blackburn

I know many people disagreed, often passionately, with the decisions I took over Iraq. I understand why people took a different view and respect them.

I accept, too, that we have not found weapons of mass destruction. All I can say is that every intelligence service and every country, including those against military action, believed at the time that Saddam Hussein had WMD.

They believed this because we all knew Saddam did have WMD and we thought he still had them. So it wasn't a matter of not listening. I had to do what I thought was right for this country and the wider region based on the evidence in front of me at the time.

But the actual basis for military action was, in fact, Saddam's ignoring of his UN obligations. It is often forgotten that the evidence that has come to light since shows how flagrantly he breeched UN resolutions and, indeed his determination to rebuild his WMD capability as soon as he could.

As to relations between Blackburn and Burnley fans, I'm glad to say it is nothing to do with the Labour Party. But I can promise you that the rivalry between Jack and Alastair is real and, I'm told, quite restrained by local standards."

REACTION: Mr Randell said: "I think this is the closest Mr Blair has come to admitting that in hindsight the information was wrong at the time of going to war, and it is good he has been so open."

Q - Please can you tell me why, as the leader of one of the richer nations in the world, you do not do anything to improve the state pensions? £200 off council tax is welcome but it does not make up for lost ground.

Mr Alan Pearson, Park Lee Road, Blackburn

A - Mr Blair said: "I admit we have got more to do to repay society's debt to the older generation but I am proud of what we have already done.

"We are spending around £10billion more a year on pensioners in real terms than was being spent in 1997. That is, in fact, £7billion more than if we had linked the basic state pension to earnings. But we are doing so in a way which has targeted most help on the poorest pensioners, just as we said we would.

"I am not going to apologise for this. We could have put the money on the basic state pension but that would have spread the money we had much more thinly and would not have necessarily helped those who need it most because they would have lost other benefits. And the facts show that many pensioners, thanks to occupational and private pensions, are comfortably off.

"Thanks to above inflation rises in the basic state pension and the pension credit, now no single pensioner should get less than £109. That is a 30per cent increase in real terms since 1997.

"We have done more for pensioners. We have cut VAT on fuel and scrapped the Tory eye test charges. We have brought in the £200 winter fuel allowance, with an extra £100 for those over 80. The free bus travel we announced in the budget has gone down well as well and because older pensioners are usually the poorest pensioners, we have brought in free TV licences for the over 75s."

R - Mr Pearson said: "I knew what the answer would be. I've got an occupational pension but I am worse off than the people who never worked because they are picking up all the benefits. We are still being penalised for working hard."

Q - My grandson died because his childminder was drunk. She told Ofsted she was prone to binge-drinking but was still allowed to register. You've already said you'll look at it, but now it has come out in court that people with drink problems can become minders, surely you should be doing something more? Making Ofsted tighten up the rules? They've completed their inquiry but won't make it public.

Cathy Massey, Clitheroe

A - Mr Blair said: "Can I first say how sorry I am at the tragic loss of your grandson. I know no words can take away the pain but I do want to send my sympathy to your family.

"I also know you recently held a constructive meeting with childrens minister Margaret Hodge to discuss what happened and press for a tightening of the rules.

"The position is that Ofsted have done their own internal investigation over what happened and what lessons can be learnt. But that is not the end of the matter. Ofsted is in touch with the Lancashire Area Child Protection Committee who are carrying an independent review of all the facts. Their serious case review can make wide-ranging recommendations for Government and all the agencies involved. I can promise that neither we nor Ofsted will ignore the findings."

R - Mrs Massey said: "This is a very important promise from Mr Blair. He has promised to make sure lessons are learnt. We have to wait and see what the inquiry says but there are lessons to be learnt. Joshua is very much in everybody's mind at the moment, because the court case is still so recent. We will never forget him and we have to make sure the people in power aren't able to forget what happened and make sure it can't happen again."