Letters - Friday January 22, 2021

I am a 78-year-old pensioner who has had two heart attacks and also has type 2 diabetes. In December I was given an appointment to go to Whitegate Drive in Blackpool for a vaccination, this was cancelled just two days before.

I have now received a vaccination letter; to try to make two appointments - to attend both appointments at the same place.

The website states that all destinations are as the crow flies, I cannot travel to them “as the crow flies”. It gives the nearest as Blackburn Cathedral (pictured), a distance of 22.4 miles. It them gives 17 other destinations each going up in distance until we get to Leeds at 58.6 miles... “as the crow flies”. What is wrong with Whitegate Drive which is 2.4 miles by road or around ‘1.6 miles as the crow flies?

This is the information being given to someone in their late 70s and those in their 80s and 90s who have not yet had a vaccination.

How do they expect people to get to these places?

Many will no longer drive, and it would need two or three buses, or a bus, a train and a taxi. If they can get someone to take them by car there is the cost of petrol (both ways) and parking.

I feel that this is a ploy by Boris to say: “Look at what we have set-up and how many people are using it!”

I know it is a lot to ask for a little bit of thought from the Government, but do they really expect people from Blackpool where the rates are falling to go to Blackburn which already has the highest number, and the rate is still going up.

Could we have a common-sense solution to this such as Blackpool people having vaccinations in Blackpool?

Terry Bennett

Blackpool

Society

Waste charge for dog owners

We have just received and paid for our garden waste collection bill of £41 for 2021, approximately £2 a week. It saves trips to the tip and the waste collected is recycled into compost. Also residents without gardens are not paying for the service.

Isn’t it time dog owners paid for litter bins to be emptied? There are an estimated 10.5 million dogs in the UK and as most dog waste is picked up in plastic bags it has to go into landfill.

Could there be a way of registering dogs and owners paying at least £50 a year (less than £1 a week) towards the cost of emptying bins, and probably employing dog wardens to look out for the small minority of owners who do not pick up and spoil our towns and public spaces?

Christine Ingledew

via email

Society

Tax sweet makers environmental tax

Sweet manufacturers should be levied with an ‘environmental tax’ on top of a sugar tax to help the Government dispose of the unnecessary packaging.

For instance, Nestle can package two-finger Kit Kats in silver foil held together by a paper sleeve, and yet they sell the four-finger Kit Kats in plastic packaging – why?

If you buy multiple packs to save money, they put another layer of plastic around to contain them. Again why?

Is there really a need for all this packaging for Britain’s most popular chocolate snack bar when millions are sold each week to satisfy our liking for this snack?

Biscuits are mainly packaged in plastic these days by manufacturers like McVities who sell millions of chocolate digestives.

Due to the vast volumes of these outer wrappers disposed of each week, councils have to send this waste for incineration, which produces electricity but at a great environmental cost of toxic pollutants being pumped into the air we breathe.

Manufacturers need to look into alternative packaging now, not in five years.

There are the technologies out there produce environmentally-friendly packages which can be composted!

Dave Ellis

via email

Media

What about us older listeners?

Am I alone in noticing that BBC Radio, both local and national, have seemingly adopted a policy of playing more and more music from the past two decades, and neglecting its more mature and, in many cases, loyal listeners?

Having tuned into Radio 2, on a regular basis since its inception in 1967, and Radio Leeds since 1968, the latter having not played any 1960s music, for some time, and I am reaching more and more for the “off” button – unthinkable, a couple of years ago.

Radio 1 and 2 might just as well merge as they play the same stuff, most of the time, so please BBC, how about giving us all some value for our licence fee, whether we be aged 18 or 80.

A Shipman

address supplied