Letters - Friday January 15 2021

I read the recent article in The Gazette with interest about the closure of WHSmith (pictured) and the loss of the Blackpool town centre post office.

The former job centre building on the corner of Queen Street and Abingdon Street would make a suitable location to incorporate a post office counter and used as a shared office space.

Last year we were pleased to learn this building was earmarked to become the central office to house Blackpool Council Children’s Services Department staff.

Situated within easy walking reach of the Town Hall and the Bickerstaff House offices, it is also just a stone throw away from The Central Library and connecting bus routes.

The last thing Blackpool needs is for this fine modern purpose built office building to be sold at auction and purchased by an unscrupulous type developer and property landlord, converting the building into a large number of bog standard one-bedroom properties.

It is well recognised that Blackpool has an over supply of former B&Bs . Some of these B&B conversions into residential flats have proved problematic and attracted some unsavoury characters.

Blackpool’s aims and aspirations are to improve standards and attract a wider demographic to work, live and visit the resort. We should be anxious to avoid any further housing projects which could risk the town centre inheriting daily ‘domestics’ for the police to deal with - the kind of confrontational dramas that were portrayed on The Jeremy Kyle TV Show!

I have contacted both Blackpool MPs about the feasibility of the former job centre becoming a shared town centre office space and post office.

In these very uncertain times, joined-up thinking is the way forward. Hence the reason the job centre joined forces and relocated to the Customer First offices on Corporation Street three years ago.

The former job centre on Queen Street is a secure building with both vehicle space and disability access facilities. Because commercial property prices in Blackpool are currently well below the national average, I do hope this building does not fall into the wrong hands.

This will do the town no favours whatsoever.

Stephen Pierre

On behalf of The Galleon Bar Blackpool

Politics

Tories complicit in Trump’s racism

Donald Trump did not morph into a racist gangster overnight. He began his presidency in 2016 by endorsing the neo-nazi murdererers of Heather Heyer as fine people in Charlotteville.

Over the last four years he has wasted no opportunity to persecute and vilify Muslims, Mexicans and immigrants. But over the last four years, the openly racist Trump has had the warm backing of the Tory government.

Theresa May held his hand and threw him banquets. Boris Johnson, branded The British Trump, by the US president wanted Trump to receive the Nobel Peace prize.

Jacob Rees-Mogg hoped Trump would be the UK’s greatest ally in the post-Brexit landscape.

Michael Gove had a photo taken with Trump, in a thumbs-up endorsement.

Dominic Raab and Matt Hancock both refused to comment on Trump’s ludicrous claims that he’d won the election.

The whole Tory government is complicit in Trump’s racism and gansterism. So they can spare us their faux outrage after Trump dared to unleash his racist followers on Washington in an attempt to keep power.

Trump is the ideological ally of the Tories.

Royston Jones

Anchorsholme

Brexit

Backtracking on promises

One of the many grand promises of the Brexiteers was that they would deliver a ‘Green Brexit’, with people like Michael Gove pledging to support high standards on the environment.

Aware of the track record of such individuals, organisations who work on the environment were somewhat cautious about such claims.

Back in 2017 Greenpeace UK commented that it was “promising” that Mr Gove had made statements about “enhancing nature protections, and looking after our bees”, but that “the question is whether and how these words will turn into actual government policy”.

Lo and behold there are now reports that the Government is about to allow the use of a bee-killing chemical which is not allowed in the EU as it is so harmful.

Nature-lovers and environmental groups are unsurprisingly not happy, pointing to the problem of falling biodiversity and the need to protect nature for all our tomorrows. Though it is getting hard to keep track of all the broken promises and failures of so-called Brexit, backtracking on these kinds of issues could have the worst consequences in the long run.

Dr Oliver Sykes

address supplied

Politics

Good fortune for Scotland

Bearing in mind the huge amount of money the Government sends to Scotland, many English taxpayers would welcome a referendum to decide whether or not we want to continue with this largesse.

Scotland has a similar population to Yorkshire, about 5.5 million, and if they received the extra £2,000 per head per year public spending as Scotland, well, what would they spend the money on?

Alan Chevin

via email