Letters - July 13, 2016

It is really fantastic to see some impressions of what is being proposed. The success of conference facilities is a great reason to believe in the future for the Central Holiday Area.

It is also the reason that Blackpool Council urgently needs to respect this area and the many small and medium accommodation providers in it, and starts to challenge the extremely negative issues they face in their daily battle against the HMOs, anti-social behaviour and borderline accommodation which are decimating the very fabric of the area and the town, draining honest businesses of their trade and reducing their ability to prepare for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

At the Central Blackpool Business Forum we are working extremely hard to rebuild the business community to prepare for this and other possible projects, but urgent action needs taking now, to break the destructive cycle of negative forces and start to regenerate the historically important community of small, family-run bed and breakfasts, guest houses and small hotels and associated trades, which for years have made Blackpool Britain’s favourite seaside resort.

Ian White

The Chorlton

Hull Road

Blackpool

ENTERTAINMENT

It makes sense to lower ticket prices

I took my two granddaughters, aged four and six, along with their other grandma, to the Saturday matinee of The Sound of Music at the Opera House.

If anyone has tried booking tickets through Ticketmaster, which seems to be the only route now when you book tickets for most performances, they will know it’s not so straightforward and often rather infuriating.

I thought we could maybe purchase a family ticket – two seniors and two young children. However, it seems a family ticket now constitutes one adult and three children. The total price for the four of us was £88 – £22 each. We were right at the back in the rear stalls.

I think this is quite an excessive amount to pay and wonder how many families today are actually able to afford to take their children to the theatre on Saturday afternoons.

Surely, if tickets were more flexible price-wise, we might see more families being able to enjoy the entertainment. It seems very short-sighted as the children of today are the adults of tomorrow, and if we want our theatres to remain open and not be seen as elitist then we should not deprive families of the opportunity to see live theatre by making it so expensive .

There were certainly quite a few empty seats – I wonder why ?

Mrs J Phillips,

Kirkham

SPORT

Disgusted at this shocking waste

I found a brand new England football shirt in a plastic carrier bag thrown into a waste bin.

What a waste of money, those plastic bags are five pence each!

Ray Homar

via email

EUROPE

We are a free and unfettered nation

On June 23, the people of this Great Nation threw off the yoke of the European Union and decided it was fully capable of running its own affairs.

Great Britain, the founder of modern democracy, once more has shown the world that the basic freedom of holding its rulers to task, via the ballot box, is still alive and kicking within the loins and sinews of its people.

The free people of this nation have never knelt to the threat of war, social disruption or plain economic blackmail by anybody, any nation or groups of nations, and never will. We have been, and will continue to prove to be, made of better stuff.

For politicians of any leaning, economists of any persuasion, or doubters of the resolve of the people of this nation to succeed, proves they have not got the backbone of a true Britain.

We are now a free and unfettered nation. We will show Europe and the rest of the world we are open for business, as always, we will not fail.

Anon

via email

TELEVISION

I don’t want to see this in my living room

I have watched Coronation Street since I was a young boy, but I found last Friday’s programme very disturbing,

I have gay friends but I don’t want to watch a long heavy kissing scene in my living room, gay or straight. I am referring to the scene with Todd and Billy the Vicar.

There is no need for it on a family soap before the watershed. If it continues I won’t be watching anymore.

Stan Bowden

Poulton le Fylde

SPORT

Successes should be celebration of unity

What a sporting Sunday we have just had!

Well done to Andy Murray on securing his second Wimbledon title and to underdogs Portugal for winning Euro 2016. I am delighted Scotland and Portugal are doing well.

This is because I consider myself to be a European ahead of being English, despite the sad result of the Brexit vote.

Maybe the next referendum on Europe, whenever that may be, will be different, one celebrating togetherness rather than “us and them”.

Harry Francis

via email