Hong Kong has gone through quite a few travel agency closures and yet the consumer protection offered covers only tours booked with stamp duty paid. Why has the government not learned from past lessons and offered full protection to consumers, covering all travel-related bookings and not just on a piecemeal basis?

It is ludicrous that we have a fully functional consumer protection agency and yet consumers are still burned.

Shape up and implement full protection for consumers in travel-related services, just like in Canada and the US.

P. Chiu, Discovery Bay

Q Can more be done to prevent suicide?

I think the obvious answer to this question is yes. People do not want to commit suicide, they want a way out of the problem.

Sometimes suicide seems to be their only option. People consider taking their own life when the pain and desperation is more than the coping strategies and resources that you have available to solve the problem.

Suicide is everyone's business, and it is important for us to recognise the signs and symptoms of depression that are often a precursor to suicide. Depression is a profoundly distressing illness and in major depression there is a high risk of suicide. In fact, 70 per cent of people who commit suicide are being treated for depression.

Some of the indicators are low mood, feelings of misery and sadness not eased by things that would normally bring happiness and a lack of interest and enjoyment.

There is no pleasure in day-to-day activities, hobbies or social contact. Even simple tasks may be too much trouble.

Other signs: slowness of speech and movement; low self-esteem and energy; sleep disturbance; appetite changes; anxiety; and also physical symptoms like rapid pulse, headache, stomach upsets and weight change. When we recognise these signs, there are steps we all can take as a community to help our families, friends and colleagues.

What everyone needs, especially the despairing and suicidal, is someone to listen to them with undivided attention, without judgment and without giving advice. Just to listen.

They need to be understood and be put at their ease. They need to know that their 'secret' is safe with the person they are talking to. Being understood and cared for is a great stress relief.

It seems that the current service available for those who are less well off is woefully lacking. We are aware that mental health professionals are stretched to unacceptable levels and patients often don't receive the full level of care that they need. Until this problem is addressed, we as a community need to be aware there are many among us who are depressed, despairing and imminently suicidal.

The Samaritans, 24-hour multi-lingual Suicide Prevention Hotline

Q Is the ESF school building planned for Discovery Bay too big?

My family and I recently moved to Hong Kong and are planning to be here for a minimum of five years.

We chose to reside in Discovery Bay, primarily because of our two-year-old son.

We were encouraged to learn there would be an English Schools Foundation school built within Discovery Bay - even more so when we learned about the daunting waiting list at Discovery Bay's international school. I was very disappointed that so many of the objectors to the new school seem to feel as if putting the school on hold for a few years, to discuss the design, is a reasonable suggestion at this late stage.

I am frustrated that the many non-permanent residents in DB are being used as a reason for reconsidering the school.

Even though the new school will require that at least 70 per cent of students have at least one parent with a permanent ID, this still means there are 390 places for the children of non-permanent residents. That is 390 more than we have now!

The idea that we go back to the beginning of the planning process, by rethinking the size and location of the school after years of planning, can only sound reasonable to a person not facing the prospect of sending a young child far from home to go to school.

Joan and Dave Debus, Discovery Bay

In Amy Yung's letter (January 25), she mentioned her newsletter of January 10, regarding her 2003 suggestion that ESF 'take over the management of the proposed Indoor Recreational Centre'.

In the same newsletter she also mentioned that 'the Leisure and Cultural Services Department were reluctant to follow up ... and ESF was not willing to take up such a proposal'.

While I recognise that this might be a constructive suggestion in 2003, I am hardly surprised that the ESF, an educational organisation, was not willing to take on the management of a recreational centre as part of a proposal to build and operate a school.

Now it is 2006 and the proposal has not been supported by the main government department effected, or ESF, and is an illustration of the time and delays that will inevitably follow if the questions of the location and size of the school are put up for discussion anew.

I strongly agree with Mr Allardice's letter (January 25) saying that before we rush to look for a utopian solution that suits all, we should carefully consider the inevitable delays, in years not months, that will follow.

I fully appreciate that not everybody thinks the current location and building size are ideal, but I nonetheless urge the government to approve the requisite funding as the due planning process, including objections to the proposed school site, have been considered by the Town Planning Board.

Lloyd Loh, Discovery Bay

On other matters...

Having travelled on KMB route 69X between Tin Shui Wai and Yau Ma Tei on a daily basis for over six years, I concur totally with the comments made by your columnist Jake van der Kamp on Tuesday regarding noisy buses.

The Road Show makes the journey at times almost unbearable; I liken the hour or so trip to a travelling disco.

I have written letters to KMB complaining about the noise level, and have lost count of the number of times I have phoned the KMB customer services department.

The situation remains unchanged. I have spoken to the drivers, only to be told that they, as captains, have no control over the volume whatsoever. This state of affairs has been ongoing for several years now. Isn't it about time the powers that be put a stop to this deplorable and unsolicited noise pollution?

Robert E. Smart, Tin Shui Wai