On Sunday I had occasion to visit Blackpool Zoo, with my granddaughter.
I have been living away from Blackpool for four years now and I was amazed to find what enormous changes have been made to the East Park attraction.
When I lived in Blackpool
I frequently
visited the zoo with my grandchildren and was very familiar with the attraction, in fact I could have been a regular guide, for 20 years to the park, whilst the children were growing up, but on this occasion my youngest
grandchild was guiding me.
First of all I was guided through the
imposing entrance and the various new attractions that have been built at the start of the new zoo experience, on what was the mini fairground with its helter skelter and other games.
I was impressed by the new enclosure for the giraffe attraction and the soon to open penguin arena. To me the return of this species to the zoo is most welcome. I loved the Amazon zone.
It is obvious the changes have cost an awful lot of money and thought, and in fact it is a much better theme park than other
zoological park in the country.
I am so pleased to see the vast
improvements because I can remember 10 to 15 years ago how there was so much
controversy about money being found to promote the zoo, to keep it open. What a good job finances were found, because in my opinion it is a very necessary part of educating young people about animals that are not to be found in this part of the world but come from other countries and different continents.
Good luck for the future of the zoo, a great attraction for Blackpool.
Patricia Barker
Clitheroe
Taxi incident doesn't add up
I would like to make a comment about Look at it this way by
Jacqueline Morley on June 12.
As an experienced taxi driver who is well versed in observing taxi driver behaviour, let me say I have never, ever, witnessed scenes which she described. A cab driver, on a quiet Promenade, deliberately
driving past a lucrative booking of five female passengers.
So let me get this right. The five young ladies who were waving at the taxi driver saw no gesture from him.
But the reporter driving past did. And she then went after the taxi, saw it park on a rank some
hundreds of yards past. She then spun round, went back and crammed five strangers into her car. It beggars belief that a taxi
driver, whatever his political views, would do this. Being generous I am prepared to accept that Ms Morley is mistaken. If I was more cynical I might be forgiven for thinking that this story has been exaggerated as a convenient lead in to an attack on the BNP
Express political views by all means but please don't associate the taxi trade with the BNP.
Bill Lewtas
Blackpool Licensed Taxi Operators Association
No mobile worries
The letter writer who is alarmed about the prospects of anyone getting their
details from a mobile phone directory can rest at ease.
There are two main
directories running at the
moment, one is called Mobile118, which you have to register with to be included in their directory listings.
The second company is called 118 800 and they have lists of lots of mobile phone owners which have been obtained from either the phone suppliers or from other legal lists which just happen to
contain your phone number. But their method of working is that if someone wants your number they have to give the directory owner details of your full name and town.
If they have a listing then the company will send you a text informing you of who is
asking about you and their phone number, then you have the option to call them if you want.
You can be removed from their list for free
Dave Murten
Catterall
Finally it appears that people are beginning to accept that CCTV is ineffective, expensive and illiberal.
The Government now must justify its over-reliance on CCTV and its other grossly illiberal policies such as ID cards,
restrictions on the right to protest, use of anti-terror laws to monitor whether we place
rubbish in the right bin or if we live in a certain catchment area for schools, detention without charge and the database
obsessed state we live in.
As a whole people in this country are better than the
Government fear we are.
The risk of being a victim of crime is much less than people's perceptions and I believe the unjustified expansion in CCTV is at least in part responsible for this.
Rather than making people safer it appears to me that CCTV creates and reinforces an
unconscious message that there is an inflated sense of danger on our streets. Well done Blackpool Council for their stance against this folly.
seasidepete
Poulton
It is a well known fact that CCTV does not reduce crime.
Crime will always be
committed, be it vandalism or assault.
It gets recorded for
prosecution use, and if it's
insufficient for that then we will be able to watch it on one of the caught-on-camera-crime TV shows.
Just how many times have the Gazette reported an
assault, and reports that
police are looking at CCTV for clues.
It is effective at trying to solve the crime, this is good as it speeds up inquiries but sadly not to deter the crime.
Chrissy21
They were installed as a feel good factor and joe public now knows that as far as prosecutions go for petty vandalism they are a non starter.
I wouldn't mind if they even spied on the correct offenders but as we know in this society it seems to pay to be a criminal.
There soft touch, nanny state has bred a remote control
generation that have little pride, self respect or get up and go.
I sympathise with good hard working folk who feel down
trodden and the powers that be take note at the next election.
sandfly
It is very difficult to come to any clear conclusion about
effectiveness where the chances of incidents
happening is a complete
unknown.
fyldecoast
