YOUR report on the court case in which York College was fined £175,000 plus £45,000 cost should make clear that it is the taxpayers who have been fined, not those responsible for the tragic and avoidable death of three year old Lydia Bishop.

The college is 83 per cent taxpayer funded. So who is paying the fine?

Judge Mr Justice Coulson said quite clearly that staff warnings to put the slide behind a fence with a lockable gate were ignored. He said that nursery manager Liz Radford and health and safety manager David Jackson were the ones responsible for safety. The child was left alone for 20 minutes. The nursery worker, a junior member of staff, was in a separate case cleared of manslaughter. No action has been taken against other members of staff who had a clear responsibility.

Alison Birkinshaw, the college principal, has said that lessons will be learned.

The lesson we should all learn from this and other public sector cases is that those responsible go unpunished, and the innocent taxpayer is punished by having to pay the fine, and pay the costs..

David Rimington, Fairways Drive, Harrogate.