Letters - May 4, 2017

As a ‘Sandgrownun’ it hurts me to say it but Talbot Road from Abingdon Street to Talbot Square is a dump. Isn’t it time the council stopped thinking about borrowing millions of pounds to spend on ‘glamour projects’, and started work on improving the existing infrastructure.

Neal Duffy

Via email

GATEWAY

Bridge covered in mountains of poo

On reading today’s edition of the Gazette (Monday, May 1) and the main headline on the front page ‘Gateway to the Future’, it made me realise that cars and coaches using the present gateway from the M55 along Yeadon Way have to pass under the Waterloo Road bridge.

This is covered in mountains of pigeon excrement. It adorns the walls and roadway.

It’s an eyesore of epic proportions and seems to be getting worse as the days go by. I’m sure that a jet wash once a month or so would be quite beneficial and could prevent the birds from roosting there in the first place.

Concerned Hotelier

Address supplied

GATEWAY

Wiped off the map by the big boys

We mature members of local communities recall how so many privately owned shops closed one by one as ‘the big boys’ came and pushed out most small businesses serving over the counter, where the customer was always right and assistants or shop owners knew us by name as we knew theirs.

That personal touch large stores have is minimal and while we may think how long it took to serve customers over the counter in those small shops, don’t forget they had more staff and despite today’s technology geared to make serving faster I’m not so sure with several procedures at the checkouts. So in years to come we will perhaps look back and think of how guest houses were wiped off the face of tourist areas (Gateway of the Future, The Gazette May 1) forced out by ‘the big boys’ of the large hotel industry. Blackpool surely has enough big boy hotels without this obsession to create more based on conference visitors, yet I know of political party members who say they much prefer to stay in reputable guest houses where they receive the personal touch, impeccable cleanliness, with the advantage of breakfast orders taken and cooked either by proprietors or their small team of catering staff. Knowing too that if there happens to be any untoward guests staying the proprietors will act upon it to protect other guests, after all they want them to return as many do year after year.

Premier Inns, Travelodge and large established hotels, The Hilton, Pembroke, The Cliffs, Savoy, Imperial we already have, so please, if Blackpool wishes to look forward and yet hold on to traditional values, don’t ruin the smaller man because it is they who helped build Blackpool’s tourism popularity and continue to do so with their valuable dedication.

Clifford Chambers

Ashton Road

Blackpool

APPEAL

Why I’m supporting prostate cancer bid

A few weeks ago I turned 57, placing me firmly in two risk categories for prostate cancer.

I’ve recently starting working with Prostate Cancer UK and I’ve come to learn that as a black man over 50, my risk of the disease is double that of a white man the same age. One in four black men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime compared one in eight white men. But despite the shocking odds, I find it more concerning that just saying the word ‘prostate’ within many black communities remains such a massive taboo subject. The disease is simply not spoken about, and if it is, it’s in a ‘hush hush, don’t tell anyone’ type of way. How can it be that something that affects so many black fathers, uncles, sons, and friends is continually swept under the carpet and ignored?

My physical and mental health has always been important to me. When I was in the prime of my career, it was the most important thing. However, as I’ve grown older I’ve come to realise that no matter how well I eat, or how fit I am, I am not indestructible – nobody is. But there are defence measures I can take and arming myself with knowledge is by far the most important.

That’s why I’m supporting Prostate Cancer UK’s Stronger Knowing More campaign and I’m urging all your black readers to do the same. Understand your risk of prostate cancer and act on it. This challenge is a marathon, not a sprint and if we’re going to beat it, the whole black community needs to start breaking down the taboos and start talking.

Linford Christie

Prostate Cancer UK

MEDIA

Good riddance to paper columnist

Good riddance to Sun columnist Kelvin Mackenzie. Will he never learn?

You would have thought he’d have learnt his lesson after insulting the good people of Liverpool – as a result the Sun newspaper was blacklisted from the city.

It’s hard to believe this man was an editor of the Sun and is now a columnist, which he used to express his offensive views towards the citizens of Liverpool.

But now he has overstepped the line and, quite rightly, he has been suspended from the Sun.

Do these columnists think they can write their venom in their lucrative newspaper columns and get away with it? Good riddance to Kelvin MacKenzie.

Names and address 
supplied