Letters - August 17, 2016

I thought it was great to see the three blocks come down in one fell swoop .

What a good job ! You see I have a shop very close to the first tower blocks that came down not by a big blast but what we called the Big Muncher .

This crunched up the towers bit by bit and what a mess that made albeit nowhere near as much as the last three blocks. The work on the first two blocks lasted for months. The dust came down every single day, for months .

The fibres from the insulation coming down one day made it look like it was snowing in the summer ! The businesses and residents put up with this for months .

Some of my stock from my shop got so dusty we couldn’t sell it, we just had to put up with it. I couldn’t afford to shut my shop .

So , thank goodness they have all been demolished now and hope that the new estate will be a happy and pleasant place for people to live and work and cannot wait for it all to be completed.

Via email

FRACKING

Opposition is deep and widespread

The rallying cry of Francis Egan that fracking will be good for Lancashire is another attempt to mask the embarrassing exposure which Cuadrilla suffered at the Public Inquiry.

The company’s appeal against the refusal of planning permission at Roseacre Wood was so weak that the operator’s barrister had to make constant reference to the Secretary Of State, who, Cuadrilla hopes, will impose it on Lancashire.

The vague and unsupported claims made by Babs Murphy and co were criticised as speculation (and lacked any canvassing of the actual members of the Chamber of Commerce!!) and the opinion Mr Petts is driven by his self interest, which is fair enough but hardly objective!

The truth is that it is not residents who object: it is the widely held view of the vast majority of local communities (including businesses and farmers whose economic welfare is at stake) as well as those who value our area. Survey after survey conducted by the government confirms growing national opposition, in direct response to growing understanding of what fracking will mean. The pity of it is that, uniquely in the UK , only English voters look likely to have this imposed on them.

It is to be hoped the Secretary of State looks at the evidence from the long and costly Public Inquiry and stays well clear of industry spin.

Elizabeth Warner

Roseacre Awareness Group.

FOOTBALL

It’s better to play 
the beautiful game

When football’s global brand, the Premier League, kicked off last weekend I had one over-riding emotion which can be summed up as: Oh god, here we go again.

Having supported a top-flight team since the age of seven, I have now come to realise at the age of 42 that the whole thing is a complete waste of time.

Rather than watch overpaid prima donnas, who so often blatantly cheat to try and get decisions in their favour, it is far better to go out and play the game instead.

Even kicking a ball against a wall, or just going for a gentle walk in the park, is far more productive than watching a box streaming pictures of 22 painfully well-groomed men prance around, trying to kick a ball into a net.

And if you can’t get out and about to exercise, stick on a film or documentary rather than pay a monthly fee to watch this ‘Premier’ pantomime - life is too short to waste time on that.

Steven Moss

Via email

TRANSPORT

I’m guilty of driving my car too much too

My confession is I drive. I drive and yet I think there are too many cars on the roads.

And if it’s like this now, what will it be like in the future?

We are living longer, healthier lives. What if those of us who can, continue to clutch our driving licences until the age of 100?

And if all the next generation and the next want their own cars too – will there be gridlock? Will we say goodbye to the last patch of countryside for yet another road?

I have heard Jeremy Corbyn cycles rather than drives, and this is something I admire. Individuals’ circumstances are different – some need to drive for health reasons or for commuting long distances, but for others, like me, the car can be an option.

I might not be able to give up my car but I could drive less often.

Perhaps this could be a compromise for others too?

Jane

Lancashire

ECONOMY

Living beyond 
our means

What is going on in this mad world of ours?

I read that the bank rate might drop to negative and we might have to pay to put our money in a bank, yet moneylenders still charge us 29.5 per cent.

We must be still living far beyond our means as quantitative easing by our banks is still many billions a month making our pound worth almost nothing, yet our rich seem to be getting richer every year.

Argentina here we come.

Name and address supplied