A disgraceful practice has grown up over many years in this country whereby businesses of all kinds tend to delay payments to improve their own cash flow. This, in fact, is breaking the contract with the supplier as goods are always supplied subject to stated payment terms, usually 30 days or payment by the last day of the month following month of invoice.

If these terms were universally adhered to, the benefits to the economy would be enormous. At present, a vast amount of non-productive time has to be spent by businesses of all sizes chasing payments. This all too often results in the sinned against becoming sinners.

A young relative of mine is the owner-manager of a small manufacturing business with a very healthy order book. He is, however, at his wits
end trying to get payment from his customers.

But the really disgraceful part of the story is that nearly all of his customers are publicly funded bodies.

The Government could make a huge contribution to the liquidity of the wealth-creating sector of the economy by insisting that all recipients of public funds – government departments, local authorities, quangos, NHS, schools, etc – are required, as a condition of their funding, to pay their suppliers on the due date.

And if anyone says I am being unrealistic, I was the owner-manager of a manufacturing business for 25 years and we always paid all our suppliers on time.


Wartime weekend brings happy memories

From: J Langley, Rosewood Close, Bridlington.

YOUR article by Mark Branagan (Yorkshire Post, October 11) on this year's re-enactment Wartime Weekend in Pickering on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway highlighted the plight of evacuees at the outbreak of the Second World War.

I found the story most interesting as a five-year-old evacuee from Hull, to the Wolds village of Thixendale. Yes, we were packed off with our labels and gas masks and we were chosen by "strangers" in my case, not at a village hall, but an old barn. While a lot is still talked about the Second World War – this year it has been the Land Army girls – very little has been voiced about the thousands of evacuees.

In July, the Wolds village of Thixendale and surrounding villages held a High Wolds Heritage Exhibition covering the past 100 or so years and I was delighted to be involved in the project – it brought back many happy memories.


Airport's failure to warn of connection delay


From: Glenn Robertson, Calgary, Canada.

I AM a frequent traveller to your part of the world, having visited there at least once or twice a year for the past 20 years. I was very disappointed by the level of service I received while flying through Leeds Bradford Airport on BMI last week.

I had travelled to Yorkshire to fish for salmon with a close friend in Harrogate. During
my return departing for London on October 10, I was informed that my flight BD 413 was delayed slightly, but not to be concerned. The flight time came and went with no communication from ground staff on the status or time of
the departure.

I sought out a ground agent and was told only that the flight was temporarily delayed and would still allow me to make my connecting flight at Heathrow to Canada. Another hour came and went with still no word on our departure or connection alternatives.

The flight finally arrived and the captain informed that some confusion regarding the flight going to Teesside had occurred, and was the reason for our late departure. Clearly ground personnel must have known this for some time. I suggest even when I had checked in some three hours earlier. This delay caused an eight-hour delay in my arrival home to Calgary, having missed the direct flight.

As bad as this was, I was initially told in London that the only remaining flight to Canada was oversold and I would need to stay in London for the night and sort out my hotel with BMI.

Only due to a further mechanical issue and delay on a flight to Montreal did I make it home. My point is that I was in a position when I checked in at Leeds to make other arrangements to make my direct flight in London. By treating me and other passengers with total disrespect, the airline was completely negligent with no reasonable excuse.

Further, I had carried my fly rod case the entire journey to Leeds as carry on baggage. At LBA I was charged £38 to check a 13oz fly rod that easily fitted into the overhead compartment. To make matters worse, it went missing in London. The policy of what determines carry-on luggage should be universal and not left to the arbitrary decision of a gate agent. Why is this acceptable in Calgary, Denver, Chicago, London and not Leeds Bradford International?