Letters - January 12, 2017

File photo dated 22/01/08 of homes in south Derbyshire as the share of UK towns and cities that are affordable to first-time buyers is at its highest in a decade due to the sluggish housing market, a study has found. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Saturday July 14, 2012. Those taking their first step on the property ladder will find homes within their means in 54% of local authority districts, the highest proportion since 2002 when 64% of districts were within buyers' reach, Halifax found. This is up from 40% a year ago and almost eight times the proportion of affordable districts at the peak of the housing market in 2007, when just 7% were in this bracket. A widening North-South divide was highlighted, with London being the only region where there were no affordable areas found for would-be buyers on average earnings. By contrast, 100% of districts in the North East were within buyers' grasp. Just 9% of the affordable districts are in the South East, the South West or the East of England, compared with

ANNIVERSARIESRussian celebration is nothing to laugh atGood old Roy Jones . He's at it again.

Red Roy’s latest supplication (Your Say, Gazette, January 7) is that: “In 2017, which marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution, and the liberating ideals unleashed then are well worth revisiting today.”

Now hang on Roy, 2017 has lots of anniversaries, including:

* 100 years since the birth of John F Kennedy;

* 600 years since Henry V’s conquest of Normandy;

* 150 years since the birth of Marie Curie;

* 50th anniversary of the Six-Day-War;

* 50th anniversary of the first human heart transplant.

But then I suppose that if we were to take you seriously Comrade, then we really should stop and consider the “liberating ideals unleashed”.

Why don’t Blackpool Council assist you in celebrating this momentous anniversary?

Here are a few suggestions of mine.

We would, of course, have to have the Red Flag flying from the Tower and the Town Hall. And I mean the proper Red Flag, with the hammer and sickle in the corner.

On July 16, we could have the re-enactment of the execution of Tsar Nicholas and his family at the Grand Theatre, while the November Armistice parade could be led by the KGB band, with the salute taken by Comrade Corbyn on the Town Hall steps.

December could see Arthur Scargill lead the Christmas Carols, and a special display by the Red Army Cossacks.

I am old enough to remember when Roy was a pleasant and happy young man. Now he seems to be all bitter and twisted, moaning, groaning and not doing the Labour Party much good at all.

I think I blame Scargill for much of his misery. Has Roy visited his £600,000 home in Yorkshire? Or his £2 million council flat in London he wanted to buy for half its value?

Come on Comrade, lighten up, chill out and have a Happy New Year like the rest of us.

Mike Picewicz

Warbreck Hill Road

Blackpool

HOUSING

Why is Blackpool so different from rest?

Today, I read that house prices have apparently soared sicnce the Brexit vote.

My sister phoned to say she read that a house on our road had sold for £60-odd thousand pounds, but I remember a time that these houses, modernised, could sell for about £90,000.

So what worries me is if there is a boom in house prices, why are house prices in Blackpool so drastically reduced?

A number of landlords own houses in our road and surrounding area and I have no complaints.

However, I don’t want people buying up our cheap houses and flooding the place with ‘to let’ properties. This means people on the move, not settling down and investing in the town.

As long as there is fairness and every street and road in the town have their share of ‘to let’ properties.

I would like to see more affordable houses being built for people, as there is a shortage.

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