Letters - Friday December 4, 2020

We need to support local businesses, rather than line the pockets of well known online retailers.

However, shopping locally must be made more attractive.

One way is to review the council and city centre parking charges.

After hearing on the radio how, in other areas of the country, local businesses are suffering due to low patronage, Lancashire businesses will no doubt echo this.

So with parking fees in town and city centres still in place and fines being issued at the drop of a hat, how are we going to reverse the trend and get people visiting and shopping in our town and city centres in this crucial trading period leading up to Christmas?

We all know how many small businesses are facing financial ruin due to the pandemic.

This is the time when many will be trying to claw back just some of their lost income. Calling on town and city councils, please show some initiative and scrap parking fees in town and city centres, now and beyond this troubled time.

Help get us shopping locally.

Vikki Fillingham

via email

Transport

Trains should stop at Wrea Green

I read with interest the article about the train line to Blackpool South, announcing the addition of a passing loop which will enable doubling of the existing timetable.

Before retirement I often used this line as a quick and easy way to Preston, providing I could fit the trip to the train times.

One thing that always puzzled me, however, was why the train stops at Moss Side, with maybe a dozen houses and some mobile homes, but goes straight through Wrea Green. The village must have quadrupled in recent years yet the population is denied access to efficient public transport, despite having had a working station.

Perhaps the revised timetable could address this and restore Wrea Green’s former amenity.

L Abram

South Shore

Virus

Covid Christmas rules are a joke

The latest announcements from No 10 and the Westminster address by Health Secretary Matt Hancock justifies the ill-feeling towards our current front bench politicians.

I have always been a Blue voter but the Cabinet creates serious doubt going forward.

We have the three tier system but on a county by county basis.

Areas within each county may have varying levels of the infection rate but are all classed the same, unfair some say.

People are asking for a more selective categorisation within each county but that would involve even more confusion.

If areas within a county varied in their tier categorisation then you would have people travelling between Tier Two and Three, thereby breaking rules along the

way.

Not ideal.

The whole system is flawed before its inception, with MPs from both sides of the house already challenging.

It’s an ill thought out, wishy washy system denounced by many with a common sense approach, unlike what appears to be the two individuals mentioned.

Then we are to have the relaxation of rules at Christmas, which has been questioned in the minds of many.

People will likely be travelling between areas in varied tier categories which, by definition, carry different rule parameters.

It is an absolute joke and another decision without thought.

The Chief Medical Officer for England, Prof Chris Whitty (pictured), does not recommend families getting close to elderly relatives, so why is Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock ignoring such advice?

They appear to be acting like buffoons.

One thing can be guaranteed and that is January/February will see yet another lockdown, perhaps more lengthy than the current one, and even more pressure on the NHS and essential services.

Both the Prime Minister and Health Secretary have, yet again, got it wrong but the way the pandemic is being handled by both it is only to be expected.

Shaun Kavanagh

via email