Letters - March 29, 2017

The holidaymaker who dropped the cigarette butt is clearly wrong in doing so but it is only a butt, and is only a small contribution to the piles of litter in the streets.

May I suggest that the wardens following cigarette smokers to give out hefty fines would be better deployed following the bin lorries of contractors working for Blackpool Council as their contribution to litter in the streets is much greater.

After bin collection, especially if it has been windy, there are empty beer tins and plastic bottles left strewn in the street with rubbish that has missed the truck.

A spokesman for Blackpool Council told me last year that these contractors are not contracted to pick up rubbish in the street only to empty the bins. So perhaps what the council really needs is a joined up thinking policy regarding litter in the whole of the town and not just the bit that tourists see.

Alan bowell

Via email

PARKING

Camper vans should be paying increase

I agree with most people that an increase in parking would be counter productive.

However my exception would be camper vans and such like. These have been a thorn in the side of hoteliers for years. £10 per day is reasonable and if they don’t like it, then let them park on a designated parking lot out of town. Decrease the parking costs on any car park that is never fully utilised and as for locals, the solution is simple. Use the bus, there are plenty of them, workers could obtain a monthly or yearly pass.

They would soon get used to that and at the same time wonder why it had taken them so long to do so because it works out a lot cheaper.

Linda wright

Car user, bus user and walker

POLITICS

Reform overseas 
aid programme

We are constantly being reminded about cuts to services, from schools to care, the NHS to local councils, with the Government saying that it has made sufficient provisions in funding these services through their “reforms”, which actually means cuts.

There is a very simple remedy to all of this, one which would close down the debate altogether and provide the funds necessary to satisfy the growing demands that these services need.

Reform the overseas aid programme, to which by law we have to donate 0.7 per cent of our GDP – currently £13bn and rising as our economy grows.

This is taxpayers’ money, which is handed out to countries which don’t need it, don’t want it and, in some cases, have corrupt regimes. It is putting our money into the wrong pockets.

We need to reduce it so that our own services are properly funded to the benefit of our own people first and whatever is left can be allocated to those countries that really need it. That is fair to the taxpayers, the services involved and the future funding of our country’s needs.

Philip Griffiths

UKIP North West President

POLITICS

Remember Mo’s work for peace

Following the death of Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness and the contribution made by a number of people in bringing peace to Northern Ireland, one person’s contribution is noticeably missing – that of Mo Mowlam, the late Northern Ireland Secretary.

She was part of the team that brought about the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

She was instrumental in making this possible by convincing Republicans and Nationalists that this was a different sort of British Government.

When Loyalist paramilitaries began to express their doubts about the peace process, Mo bravely visited them in the Maze prison.

She managed to prevent them from pulling the plug on the process.

Mo Mowlam also pushed for the inquiry into ‘Bloody Sunday’ in which the British Army killed 13 people in Derry in 1972.

At the 1998 Labour conference when Prime Minister Tony Blair made his speech and mentioned Mo’s name, she received a standing ovation.

Mo revealed in her autobiography she believed that incident led to her dismissal.

She was replaced by Blair’s mate Peter Mandelson as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Mo Mowlam’s contribution to the peace movement in Northern Ireland should not be overlooked.

John Appleyard

Address supplied

TV

Rich celebs irk me on Comic Relief

A shame Comic Relief has been overshadowed by complaints of pre-watershed swearing. It used to be for all the family, back in my day.

I confess I don’t watch it as I find the millionaires telling me to donate irritating.

It’s not Comic Relief itself that irks me, rather the rich celebs.

Teddy

via email

BREXIT

Young will be most affected by Brexit

Unlike most of my fellow pensioners I voted for remain in last year’s referendum. Their vote as the largest sector of the electorate probably swung the vote for leave. Now in my late seventies, the result as also other pensioners will not greatly affect me in the years left to us.

We are always told that the shape and future prosperity of our country will be down to upcoming youth.

These are the people who voted by a large margin to remain in the European Union. They are the ones who will face whatever the consequences of leave throws at them. We are constantly told there was a democratic result, ask today’s youth if they agree with that sentiment?

Denis Lee

Ashton