Letters, December 26, 2019

It looks like Blackpool Council have devised another way to get money from the motorist - enforcement cameras will oversee the debacle that is their transport hub - a place where countless thousands have been spent to allow busses to park and spill out the sheer waste of energy because their engines are never switched off.

It looks to me as if the council are wringing their hands with glee at the prospect of getting up to £90 per vehicle that dares to stray off piste. What are disabled people to do when they can

not be dropped near to their destination? Soon the development of the surface car park on Coronation Street will give even less access to the town centre.

Never mind, all shoppers and browsers can take heart. Let’s let the council kill off the town centre fully. Fleetwood, Cleveleys and St Annes do not offer such restrictive travel arrangements. Preston is now shopper friendly and they have the Deepdale Centre which is so popular with lots of free parking. I for one will be giving the centre a miss when these cameras become operational. I am glad to say my money is good anywhere. I will leave the town centre to the hapless tourists that unwittingly take a wrong turn in a strange town. Let the council upset them for a change. I am sure it will do our image as a welcoming holiday town with a reputation for screwing every last penny out of everyone no end of good.

The council will have their streets clogged with busses in the very heart of the town. The lorries that hold up the busses and traffic as they back into the delivery bay at the rear of B & M will continue and anyone with any sense will be miles away shopping in a town that actually wants their custom.

Marion Gourlay

Kipling Court

Blackpool

Politics

Has it not dawned on defeated parties?

As the dust begins to settle on the amazing election result it seems that neither Labour nor the Liberal Democrats have learned anything.

Labour, locally and nationally, seem to blame their disaster totally on the media and, as a leading Labour MP has allegedly said, “stupid voters”. All research, however, shows that Corbyn was deeply unpopular and ‘toxic’ and the Labour Manifesto was unrealistic and unbelievable. How toxic he is can be gauged by how ‘caring’ he has been towards many of his defeated candidates and the callous way so many Labour employees are being treated.

The Lib Dems seem horrified that the Government are ‘rushing’ to fulfil the key manifesto pledge to ‘Get Brexit Done’. Has it not dawned on them that they simply got their election tactics wrong.

Neil Cartwright

Blackpool

Appeal

Please give to vital heart research

Whilst most people’s Christmas wish lists this year will consist of many-a-material good, I assure you that the Christmas wishes of thousands of people in the North West his year, look quite different.

Tragically, heart and circulatory diseases kill 19,993 people every year in the North West of England and around 930,000 in the area are currently living with the daily burden of these conditions.

This Christmas, I’m asking you to please think about the millions of families and individuals across the UK who are missing this year’s festive joy; wishing that they could be home from hospital for Christmas lunch, are awaiting a new heart for their baby or hoping a cure is soon found for a loved one’s vascular dementia.

By donating to the British Heart Foundation (BHF) this festive season, you can help to make these Christmas wishes come true.

Donations to the BHF will go towards funding life saving research. The BHF receives no government funding for research, so scientists in universities and research centres across the North West hugely rely on donations.

Please consider gifting a sprinkle of hope this Christmas. To donate, please visit www.bhf.org.uk/Christmas

Amanda Bringans

Director of Fundraising at BHF’

World

Why not report on ‘fake terrorism’?

Why does the mainstream media avoid the issue of ‘fake terrorism’ while much of the alternative media shines a spotlight on this sensitive subject?

Is it because of the fear of offending sections of their readership that they avoid this thorny issue that nevertheless reveals a technique that has been used by warmongering countries for centuries to fabricate excuses for attacking an enemy.

Journalists who cover global affairs should be given the freedom to ask the uncomfortable questions, if that does not happen then the fact some readers will be offended scuppers any chance of public accountability on matters of war.

For those who believe “fake terror” does not exist I urge them to look at the recent alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria, that has been shown to be fake according to whistleblowers at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Julie Moss

North Shore