Letters - August 24, 2016

Traffic

Fine journey until we got near home

I was recently returning by road from Norfolk when what had been a good journey came to a halt on the M61 approximately 10 miles from the M6, with all lanes full of stationary traffic.

A slow crawl eventually brought me to the M65 junction and I turned off intending to join the M6 further along.

Unfortunately the M6 was in the same situation and I crawled very slowly to the M55. As soon as a significant number of vehicles turned onto the M55 the traffic on the M6 picked up speed. There were no road-works or accidents. The problem had been caused by volume of traffic.

I eventually arrived at the end of the M55, but it still took me 15 minutes to crawl along Progress Way to Midgeland Road where I turned off.

As I did so I could see Squires Gate Lane full of stationary traffic. No doubt this continued up to and along the Promenade.

It would appear that Blackpool’s traffic problem is insufficient access roads. Yeadon Way is one lane. Progress Way and Squires Gate Lane are two lanes. Perhaps the council, instead of wasting money on a tram track along Talbot Road should look into this access problem.

Now that we know the headlands along the Promenade are unsuitable for shows as the wind blows the stages over, could we please have our four lane Promenade back?

This must help. If the current two lane Promenade is causing problems on the M55, the M6 and even the M61 something needs to happen.

Alan

Murden

Lowfield Road

Blackpool

Animal welfare

We’ve got our bad pet owners here

There is no need to watch horrifying tales of dogs being abused on TV’s The Dog Rescuers.

It seems Blackpool dogs are getting ill-treatment too, from their owners - many of whom think training a dog should consist of yanking sharply via a lead attached to the dog’s collar, shouting ‘behave!’ and hitting a dog who doesn’t seem to observe the rules for crossing a road.

Today, a man with two French bulldogs doled out the above treatment on a crossing on Newton Drive, near to the medical centre.

Furthermore, such ignorant dog owners should be made to realise that dogs/ cats cannot understand human language, so ‘behave!’ is meaningless.

Susan Barker

Fordway Avenue

Blackpool

Fracking

Anti frackers need to see the benefits

It is refreshing to read a minister talking logically and looking to the future.

I fully support the pro fracking movement – it will create many new jobs and we must not allow ourselves to be at the mercy of outside suppliers for our energy.

The anti-fracking camp do not seem to appreciate the regulatory process and appear to react hysterically whenever the word fracking is mentioned - they seem to think that Armageddon will arrive.

They also fail to realise what it would be like with no power to supply all our lives and industries.

Name and address supplied

Debate

Will the French ban wetsuits too?

Having had a look at the burkini, one can only assume the French will also have to ban wetsuits for deep sea divers.

For anyone wearing a burkini, the face is clearly visible, so what is the problem?

Well, to use the words of the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, burkinis are not compatible with French values and are based on the “enslavement of women”.

His comments came after three coastal towns banned these full-bodied swimsuits. Fortunately Mr Valls stopped short of supporting a national law along such lines.

Freedom to where clothing of one’s wishes, religiously orientated or otherwise, should be protected - whenever public decency is not offended, of course.

I would be more than happy for mankinis to be banned, for example.

But a costume that covers up rather than reveals too much can be offensive to no one, surely?

Apart from Islamophobes perhaps? And there might lie the root cause of this ban, perhaps unsurprisingly (but still unjustifiably) in the wake of the recent terrorism attacks in France.

Steven Moss

via email

Power

We need gas for our electricity

For the UK to meet its climate targets by 2025, we need to erect one new wind turbine per hour for the next nine years just to keep the lights on.

That would be 78,624 turbines, where do we fancy having those in the UK?

And that’s not keeping us warm and fed. That’s why we need gas. Some 22 million homes (84 per cent of us) are using gas central heating while 63 per cent of us cook our dinner using gas. 
Lately around 50 per cent of our power generation has been provided by gas.

We presently send £4.5bn every year – the equivalent of £500,000 every hour – overseas in payment for imported gas. In 2004 we were self-sufficient for gas.

The UK has an excellent gas infrastructure to provide heating to the vast majority of homes.

Think of the expense to householders converting their homes to electric and the higher consumer charges for that power.

Electric is not as cheap as gas. Imagine the extra infrastructure required by the National Grid to be able to cope.

Scare stories abound but one things for sure, half a million pounds an hour going to foreign lands when the UK economy could be benefitting, now that is scary.

Lorraine

Allanson

Via email