Letters - April 27, 2016

Blackpool benefitted and grew from the post war boom and was the favourite seaside destination for the workers from the industrial towns. It was also a time that was very much part of the golden age of coach travel. I can remember the tail end of the boom years in the 1980s with hundreds of coach trips visiting each week. This form of travel linked with packaged holidays have seen a year on year decline for the past two decades and more.

Those coach trip visitors gave Blackpool hoteliers, businesses and theatres the much needed Monday to Thursday tourism trade. Many of those faithful ‘die hard’ visitors have been returning regularly since the 1960’s onwards. Some can tell you tales of their honeymoons spent in Blackpool. Selected promenade hotels capitalise in this market and have gained year round bookings of older visitors. These hotels offer competitive all inclusive deals and in house entertainment.

With a diminishing and ageing midweek visiting population, Blackpool needs to find more ways to secure its future place as a destination tourism resort. Festivals, conventions and galas promoting heritage, dance, music, food, performance art etc, are the kind of events which meet the expectation of todays younger visitors on a European level. The ‘Showzam Festival’ held last February was an absolute credit to Blackpool.

Stephen Pierre

Creative Director

Blackpool Jazz & Blues Festival

APPEAL

Does anyone remember Lily?

We are trying to find anyone who may have known Mrs Lily Dennis who lived at 55 Kelvin Road before her death in 1978. We know she is buried in the church yard at All Hallows church but we are interested in any information people can give us about this lady.

She was our great grandmother and it is only due to the Ancestry website and the 1939 Register that we discovered that she lived in Blackpool from at least 1939 until her death.

Our grandfather, her son, believed that she died when he was a young child but with access to the 1911 census we became aware that she was still alive.

She had one son, one grand daughter, five great grand daughters and a great grandson and we are looking for any information about her.

If you knew Lily or was a neighbour from that time and had any memories of her we would really appreciate you getting in touch.

You may email us on [email protected].

We know this is a long shot but thank anyone who can help fill in the blanks about her.

Kate Bloomfield and Dorothy Walker

via email

STRIKE

Jeremy Hunt and his ego should resign

We have the situation of just one man, one politician, standing against a whole profession - Jeremy Hunt.

Reason tells me that he is the one deeply and egotistically in the wrong, and not the whole of the medical profession! If his egoism cannot handle it, he should resign.

Andros Loizou

St Anne’s Road East

Blackpool

STRIKE

Hunt needs to start fresh negotiations

Like many people around the country I’m very concerned that junior doctors plan to strike again. 
The impact that this will have is also worrying my daughter-in-law is due to give birth and should not have these concerns with such a big event.

Jeremy Hunt needs to get into the real world and stop being so stubborn and immediately start fresh negotiations around the table instead of placing the whole nation in dangerous territory.

This is the people’s NHS we all contribute and we all at some stage in our life need the services of the NHS. I thought that trying to find a resolution rather than start slinging insults and making it more political and a stand off between either side would be more productive and more helpful than having junior doctors strike and put millions of people at risk.

Gary Mack

via email

LITTER

Garden waste charge short-sighted

The introduction of a £30 per year charge per household for the collection of garden waste is nothing more than short-sighted penny-pinching from Blackpool Council that will no doubt result in more waste going to landfill and an increase in incidents of fly-tipping.

Blackpool residents are already struggling to cope with fortnightly collections of the grey lid waste bins, introduced in 2005.

This will only get worse in the summer and autumn months as households who don’t pay an extra £30 follow the council’s advice and dispose of grass cuttings and leaves with general household waste.

I think we will soon find that those who don’t pay £30 will quickly run out of space in their grey lid bin resulting in a build-up of rotting garden waste that will attract pests.

Of course there is bitter irony in the council telling residents to alternatively make a previously unnecessary journey to the Bristol Avenue tip to dispose of garden waste.

Louise 
Bours

UKIP North West MEP