Letters - October 10, 2018

Should we have any sympathy with the three anti-fracking activists jailed for a so-called peaceful protest?

Answer - absolutely not!

Theirs was nothing more than a cruel and calculated publicity stunt that caused misery to Preston New Road users, local residents and businesses.

They were fully aware that if they had wanted to escape a prison sentence then all they had to do was to end their vigil on top of a lorry within six hours .

But no.

In the words of the Preston Crown Court judge they deliberately “criminally disrupted” people’s lives for 99 hours - costing Lancashire taxpayers thousands in policing costs.

It was their choice - plain and simple - and prison was the right decision.

Gary cash

Blackpool

BREXIT

May now needs 
to walk the walk

No-one said it would be easy - and the continuing Brexit negotiations show that it is far from so.

But we voted to leave the EU and leave we must and not just in name but in reality. We have to be able to make our own rules, control immigration and establish our own free trade agreements.

The EU has obviously not been keen to help with this as giving us a good deal could be seen as an encouragement for other member states to head for the door.

But now Brussels is actually offering us a Canada +++ deal and we should be biting their hand off. Theresa May’s so-called Chequers deal is not the right solution and she must ditch it even if it does mean losing face.

A Canada-style deal does still leave the problem of the Irish border but it is not insuperable especially with the aid of current technology.

Mrs May talks the talk about Brexit meaning Brexit and she really has to walk the walk and follow the Referendum mandate.

Paul Nuttall

North West MEP
UK Independence Party

APPEAL

Does anyone 
know Cyril Wild?

My name is Angela (Angie) and I live in Great Haywood which is in Staffordshire. I am trying to trace a person called Cyril Wild.

I am not sure if the surname is spelt Wilde, Wild or Wylde. He was employed as an insurance agent around 1945/6 and used to stay in Tipton in the West Midlands area on business from time to time.

I do not have any other information other than the fact that he was fair haired, medium height and was married with children and used to live in the Blackpool area.

However, I understand that he moved address quite a lot and presumably this would have possibly been in the Lancashire area.

Any information that you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Angie Bradley

Via email

PLANNING

Build on brownfield sites before green

There are calls for yet more of Britain’s precious green belt land to be released for house building, yet at the same time we are assured that there is a plentiful supply of houses.

Many are in areas of low demand. This makes one wish that there was some way of moving people to these areas - but of course that is wishful thinking except in rare cases.

However there is a more practical solution. There remains a considerable amount of previously-developed land (so-called brownfield) which has yet to be redeveloped.

Brownfield is not popular with builders - an awkwardly-shaped site perhaps, and with foundations, drains etc to be removed, instead of nice fresh, open fields.

It requires all authorities to prepare a really thorough schedule of all areas of brownfield within their jurisdiction, and then to tell developers that no green fields will be released until every bit of brownfield has been redeveloped.

This would be in the long-term interest of our country.

I know that some authorities have been trying to do this for some time, but there remains more to be done.

Arthur Quarmby

via email