The extra weight and size of the new vehicles will bring chaos and danger to those communities through which

The extra weight and size of the new vehicles will bring chaos and danger to those communities through which they pass. Restoration of the Borders railway to the west is under consideration for commercial traffic, so perhaps Mr Gummer should consider a similar answer to the Otterburn question. This would restore the wonderful Border views seen from these roads to tourists and locals alike, without the need to crawl along at 15mph.JEAN E FRASERNewcastle upon Tyne. Those of us who live on Tyneside have to dice with army convoy traffic from the A1 to Byrness at present. Current army convoys have led many tourists to avoid the Tyne and Wear conurbation (including the Metro Centre) by taking the A68 direct to Carter Bar. Plans to transport these guns to Otterburn Ranges each time they are required, rather than to retain some artillery on site, will produce unacceptable and dangerous road conditions for other motorists, including tourist coaches.

Tourism in this area is increasing but will be unable to reach its full potential if the infrastructure is not in place. The Army's plans have not taken their host community's needs into account. Sir: In "Fighting Army over impact of the increase in shoot and scoot" (6 August) Stephen Goodwin fails to draw attention to the impact on the whole Border region of these plans for "big guns". The transport links between Newcastle upon Tyne and Edinburgh are in urgent need of revitalisation. I and thousands of other pupils and teachers around the country have worked extremely hard all year towards the summer examinations and we do not expect our attainment to be denigrated by the annual round of cynicism.What is the point in examination boards spending money to increase levels of attainment only to turn round and refuse to accept that standards have risen?MATTHEW STORR(aged 17)Louth,Lincolnshire. Sir: I write in response to your article "New examination system set to boost A-level pass rate" (5 August). While wholeheartedly agreeing with proposals for improving standards in education and a more varied university application system, as a 17-year-old student expecting modular A-level results in both mathematics and economics this August, I find the criticism levied at standards in education unfair and disheartening.

I would refute any suggestion that A-levels have been rendered any easier by the modular retake option. Although, as your article states, any number of resits are theoretically possible, given the constraints of time combined with the serious pressures of other modules pending and the large quantity of relearning required for a successful resit, modular retakes are both impractical and often unsuccessful. The whole point of the modular system was to provide greater motivation and allow pupils to succeed through their own dedication - not via lower thresholds. The cost of dams and embankments could be spent instead on monitoring the evolution of the river basin and providing reasonably flood-proof housing, adapted from time to time to changes in the river basin. Minimum guidance of the river would be needed, but straight-jacketing must be avoided. The policy is attractive in many cases, but each river basin has its own problems, for example due to deforestation, population growth, mineral exploitation, agriculture and urban development.Engineers have to try to educate planners and politicians, who are responsible to the public, about the nature of natural hazards and realistic ways of living with them.Emeritus Professor D M McDOWELLBrighton, East Sussex. Sir: The book of "heroines" (Letters, 9 August) I owned in my early teens (1945) included Grace Darling, Elizabeth Fry, Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, Edith Cavell, Suzanne Lenglen, Rosita Forbes and Amy Johnson: no suffragettes, no actresses, writers or artists .. but no national boundaries ANASTASIA HEALEY Spalding, Lincolnshire.

As early as 1836 Darwin had already reasoned that God was unlikely to exist, given the contradictory nature of different faiths' religious teachings. Therefore it is not accurate to suggest that Annie's tragic death in 1851 either prompted him to reject the creator, or motivated him to formulate his theory of evolution by natural selection (he had essentially completed his development of the theory by 1839). Second, David Bodanis is wrong when he says, " .. direct competition only rarely drives evolution". First, Charles Darwin's autobiography makes clear that he had begun seriously to question his (previously absolute) religious faith by 1839, two years before the birth of his beloved daughter Annie, whose death was later to devastate him completely. Sir: I am delighted to see a digestible and coherent explanation of evolution aimed toward the uninitiated, but David Bodanis (The DIY University; "Evolution", 7 August) has risked misleading his readership on one or two important points.