Letters - August 7, 2017

What a lovely idea that the St John's School pupils should help councillors Mark Smith and Ian Coleman plant flowers in Sparrow Park by the Salvation Army Citadel on Raikes Parade '˜so that we can watch the plants blossom over the summer' (Pupils dig in to spruce up garden, The Gazette 29).
Children from St John's Primary School with ward councillors Mark Smith and Ian Coleman at the garden near the Salvation ArmyChildren from St John's Primary School with ward councillors Mark Smith and Ian Coleman at the garden near the Salvation Army
Children from St John's Primary School with ward councillors Mark Smith and Ian Coleman at the garden near the Salvation Army

What a good idea it would be if the council replaced the seat, that used to be there, so that we can sit and admire them.

There are, now, no seats on Abingdon Street, Deansgate and many other streets for those who need to rest or just want to sit in the sun and watch the world go by.

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The comfortable seats on Church Street have been replaced with backless benches. Birley Street and Cedar Square have them, too. The promenade from South to North Pier has concrete blocks too low, backless and cold - not a comfortable seat to be found.

No wonder the councillors are wondering why there is no-one sitting along the prom and are suggesting re-introducing deck-chairs.

There used to be a very pleasant seat at the roundabout on Newton Drive and one at the bottom of Onslow Road for weary shoppers carrying their shopping from Westcliffe Drive (plenty of useless ones there) to Grange Park.

The missing seats are too numerous to mention.

I have been told that they have been removed because homeless people sleep on them.

Why should everyone suffer because of that?

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Blackpool, has a very high percentage of elderly people and they should be given consideration.

ANON

Via email

BREXIT

Lib Dems’ duty to oppose Brexit

Regarding the letter from D Wood (Vince Cable – yet another dud leader, Your Say, August 1).

The result of the General Election in June has taken away a large part of the authority of those who said that we must leave the EU at any cost. Many of the candidates elected as MPs are opposed to the Prime Minister’s vision of what Brexit means. She no longer has the authority to impose a solution that would bring about economic disaster, involving the loss of many jobs and increased cost of living for all of us.

Elected Liberal Democrats MPs have promised to “protect Britain’s place in Europe” and oppose Brexit. They have the right and the duty to carry out that commitment.

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Those who support Brexit at any cost have to show that, as a result of Britain leaving the EU, ordinary people in this country will not be financially and economically worse off.

Bill Greene

Blackpool

ENERGY

Oil spillage 
is a bad sign

The Liverpool Bay oil and gas workings are subject to the highest standard of monitoring and operation.

The offshore storage tanker is designed with “safety as a key priority”.

It is manned around the clock, protected by an exclusion zone and “continuously monitored by radar and patrolled 24 hours by a high powered support boat”.

So, nothing can possibly go wrong!

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The recent contamination of the beaches of Blackpool by tar and oil was the result of a spillage from these “safe” installations.

Do these assurances of safe workings sound familiar?

What credence now can we place on the guarantees given to the safety of fracking?

Paul Parton

via email

BREXIT

Heading for national disaster

Brexit will be a disaster for the UK economy and for our quality of life.

The penalties far outweigh the benefits.

The Brexiteers campaigned that we would save £350m a week by leaving the EU.

This was a lie.

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In fact the annual net payments in 2015 were £162m per week £8.5bn.

What the Brexiteers did not tell us was that we would have to pay an exit charge of around £60bn.

So for the first seven years we would not save any money at all, we would be paying more.

Leavers said they wanted ‘to take back control’ but by invoking Article 50 we have ‘lost control’.

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Fifty per cent of our exports go to the EU, only 10 per cent of the EU exports come to the UK.

So we will be in a weak bargaining position and we will be dependent on the 27 EU countries giving us an acceptable deal.

Take farming as an example.

We export 40 per cent of our lamb and 75 per cent of our wheat and barley to the EU.

If we fail to negotiate an agreement with the EU, the World Trade Organisation will impose a 51 per cent tariff on lamb exports.

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ThiS will lead to an immediate collapse in the market. Similar tariffs will be imposed in other sectors of our economy.

Now that we are aware of the harsh reality of Brexit the public should be given the opportunity to have a second referendum based upon the true facts.

Mike Turner

Via email