Letters - November 24, 2016

It showed Blackpool in such positive light, but it was all short lived thanks to a gang of louts who punched one of the professional dancers so violently in the face he had to have emergency dental work.

So I ask, where were the police?

What is the council doing to eliminate this low life in Blackpool streets that reinforces Blackpool’s poor public image and frightens residents to become prisoners in their own homes after dark?

Blackpool needs the police out of the warm, centrally heated station and out constantly patrolling our streets, and the council needs to make anti-social orders a priority and throw the book at these low life people.

People living not 300 metres from Blackpool Station shared taxis on Friday night as they were too afraid to walk home. I was one of them. These louts should be publicly shamed.

It is enough to make one give up, sell up, and desert Blackpool.

Trevor Boyle

via email

STRICTLY

Let’s accentuate the positive in Blackpool

I was really disappointed to read about the assault on professional dancer Gorka Marquez on Saturday, while visiting Blackpool following his performance on Strictly at the Tower Ballroom.

What kind of advert is this for Blackpool? It’s very damaging publicity that undermines and dampens all the hard work being done to improve the town’s image and reputation.

The Tower Ballroom is world class and compliments the BBC production of ‘Strictly’. Blackpool needs to attract high profile quality TV exposure, which is priceless for future tourism. A few years ago the same BBC production was blighted in the national press by one of the stars who suffered having their belongings stolen from their dressing room. Will the celebrities and professional dancers want to return to Blackpool after this recent assault? I hope so.

Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is Blackpool inherits a lot of other town’s transient and unsavoury characters. Blackpool Police also have the difficulty of dealing with random thugs who are visiting the resort and who are not known faces on the local ‘Pub Watch’ register. There is not an easy quick fix solution, and it’s not just a problem in Blackpool.

It is essential the town centre retains its CCTV operation as a powerful crime deterrent and useful tool for collating evidence. The ludicrous cheap booze culture being adopted by some of the bars in Blackpool will only entice several characters to get ‘lairy’ in the town centre.

It encourages those to get ‘tanked up on a tenner’ until 6am, which undoubtedly is part of the anti-social behaviour problem. Equally like those who are pre-loading at home on cheap alcohol purchased from supermarkets before they head into town.

The creatives who are trying to help portray Blackpool in a better light in an attempt to attract a wider demographic should not lose faith. They do pull together often on a voluntary basis and continue to showcase the town’s good side.

For Blackpool to achieve greater year-round economic prosperity, creating positive press and uplifting social media is the way forward.

The recent Light Pool festival was a great success. ‘Showzam’ is another annual out-of-season creative event staged in February. I’m looking forward to staging the jazz and blues festival at The Winter Gardens again next July. This event has the potential to grow year-on-year with the positive support shown from Blackpool BID and The Blackpool Gazette.

Stephen Pierre

Creative Director

Blackpool Jazz & Blues Festival

ANECDOTE

Navy pals stoke up 
a practical joke

Your letters about false teeth (Your Say, Gazette, November 14 and 21), sparked a memory of mine.

Drinking in the NAAFI bar in HMS Dolphin some years ago one of the guys, who’d already had a few, popped his top false teeth into his pint glass before going to the heads.

When he was out of sight, a stoker took his own top false teeth out and swapped them. On return it was noted that indeed, the beer was at the same level.

He downed the pint and then couldn’t understand why his false teeth wouldn’t fit. We were falling about laughing, told him the beer must have swelled them. The stokey-boy eventually put him out of his misery and swapped back!

Keith Hallam

via email

POLITICS

Let’s stop HS2 and use cash elsewhere

Wouldn’t it nice if the Chancellor’s Autumn statement this week announced the HS2 plans are being abandoned?

As well as all the homes and views that will be irrevocably damaged by this white elephant, just think what the country could do with the £55bn that would be saved.

Everyone knows the NHS needs an urgent infusion of cash, so the money not wasted on the high speed rail link could make the difference between life and death.

Many commuters already struggle to pay their rail fares and I shudder to think how much tickets will cost to travel on this folly. But did you know it is actually part of an EU project – the Trans-European Networks (TENs), designed to integrate all of the European Union’s transport and communications network?

We have asserted ourselves with Brexit and we must now assert ourselves with a resounding “no” to HS2.

Louise Bours

North West UKIP MEP