Letters - July 3, 2017

Public sector workers hit by another real-terms pay cut, our roads riddled with potholes (and our pavements full of weeds) plus the pathetic situation where the grass can’t even be cut.

Now we read (The Gazette, June 27) of proposals to halve the number of police stations open to the public across the Fylde coast.

This comes after the Chief Constable warned the cuts had gone too far and the public were less safe.

And more savings, according to Commissioner Clive Grunshaw, are needed on top of the £72.2 already cut from our police service!

Where will this end?

There need to be consequences for the effects of the reckless cutbacks.

Many said the terrorist attacks came after cuts to police numbers - a result of austerity.

I say Theresa May should be tried for manslaughter for the effects of her slashing of police numbers. She is responsible for the consequences of these politically motivated actions.

The bribe she paid to Ulster extremists to prop up the Tory party would have reversed a lot of the police cuts. Who knows? Maybe it would have saved lives in Blackpool and the Fylde.

Richard Tandy

Talbot Road 
Blackpool

CEMETERY

I can’t find my 
parents’ graves

I have every sympathy with Coral Hall who is unable to put flowers on her dad’s grave at Marton Cemetery because it’s lost in a sea of weeds (The Gazette, June 27).

My mother and father are both buried at the cemetery and you’d need a sniffer dog to locate where their grave is - because I can’t find it.

Blackpool Council charge us enough in council tax every year to afford to help St Paul’s Church to pay for cutting the grass to cricket pitch standard.

It’s an utter disgrace and clearly no council member has a relative buried there.

Neil Kendall

Stamford Avenue

South Shore

FOLK TALES

Great stories... and much for us to learn

How sad that fairy tales and folklore are dying out.

There are so many great tales to hear and learn from. It is such a shame too that many of them have been changed by Disney.

D Robinson

Via email

APPEAL

Support can save your pet’s life

On behalf of vet charity, PDSA, I would like to say a huge thank you to all local players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

We have received fantastic funding support from players this year, which has helped us secure a better future for thousands of pets, as well as providing emergency care and life-saving equipment.

Since January we’ve:

* Carried out more than 27,000 emergency operations across the UK.

* Purchased 10 critical items through a National Emergency Equipment Fund to repair or replace old or failing clinical equipment. This has included X-ray machines, ultrasound machines, microscopes and blood pressure monitors.

* Hosted Pet First Aid courses, which have equipped hundreds of people with potentially life-saving skills. These have taken place across the UK with many more planned.

* Promoted PDSA’s online symptom checker, which has been utilised more than 52,000 times. The free tool has helped owners with queries they have about their pets’ health

Just like people, pets can suddenly fall ill, or sustain an unexpected injury. Whatever the cause, the emergency care we provide is vital.

For some pets, immediate assessment and diagnosis can be the difference between life and death.

PDSA is home to the UK’s busiest pet A&E service, so this funding helps us provide a vital lifeline for pets in need. More than £200m has been raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery for good causes across Great Britain since the lottery launched – an incredible achievement.

On behalf of us here at PDSA and all the pets we treat, thank you.

Nicola Martin,

PDSA Head of Pet

Health & Welfare

DEFENCE

Carry On saga over flagship vessel

A £3.5bn British aircraft carrier is launched, with, it is claimed a computer system that will make it vulnerable to the type of cyber attack recently experienced by the NHS.

Are we then likely to see Sopwith Camels taking off from the flight deck in future, or cannon and grape shot being fired in its defence. Michael (stonewall) Fallon, in defence of the fiasco, sounded like Captain Mainwaring in an episode of Dad’s Army. What next, Trident actually turning out to be a three pronged fork?

Denis Lee

Ashton