Letters - Monday, February 21, 2022

My comments, likening Blackpool to Chernobyl, have clearly hit a raw nerve at Blackpool Council. I have been inundated with messages of support and people have said that someone should have said what I said, a long time ago.

Mrs Williams, the Leader of Blackpool Council, has said that I must not have visited Blackpool for some time and has challenged me to visit the town with her. The truth is that I was born and bred in Blackpool and visit the town at least weekly. I am deeply saddened at how the town has declined over the years and how it continues to decline, year in, year out. Many of the messages of support that I have received are from Blackpool people and it seems that I have a far better knowledge of what the real Blackpool is like than she has.

If she will leave her rose tinted glasses at home, I would be more than happy to show her around the town that she represents. I will show her the filthy litter and weed striven streets, the boarded up and semi derelict hotels and guest houses, the lower prom which is used as a dog toilet, the crumbling and decaying promenade and the boarded up empty shops in the once proud shopping centre which is now home to druggies and beggars.

She makes the claim that Blackpool has had its best season for many years but overlooks the fact that most holiday destinations in the UK have enjoyed similar success because people have been prevented from travelling abroad due to the Covid restrictions. Now that these restrictions have been lifted, the bucket and spade flights will be full again and Blackpool will revert to its normal role as the last resort. I don’t blame Mrs Williams for Blackpool’s decline as successive administrations whether Labour or Conservative have made the same mistake of pouring more and more money into the bottomless tourism pit. Costly initiative after costly initiative has failed in the resort and Blackpool continues to decline.

It is time for Blackpool council to stop throwing good money after bad and realise that the glory days of the 40s, 50s and 60s will never return. At least half the hotels and guest houses are no longer viable and the town therefore needs to reinvent itself with the Council using compulsory purchase powers to acquire all the surplus former holiday establishments. These should be demolished and replaced with better quality housing to encourage more investment in the town. The new houses built on Preston New Road, near the windmill, are a classic example of yet another own goal by Blackpool Council. Instead of a pleasant green entrance to the town it seems that every blade of grass has been built on and replaced with what looks like new slums.

It is time for Blackpool Council to spend money on Blackpool people rather than failed tourism enterprises. The town was judged to be the most deprived authority out of 317 local authorities in England in 2019 and the statistics showed that the town was getting worse rather than better. Sadly tourism with its low pay and fixed term contracts will never get Blackpool off its knees. It is time for a rethink.

Paul Hayhurst

via email

SOCIETY

Harder now to access cash

I’m writing to you to tell you that I’m concerned about my ability to access cash in my local community.’

I am wondering how many more ATM machines are going to be removed in the Fylde, with the rate of current bank closures and removal of ATMs. We now have to trail to Lytham but that is only open Mondays and Tuesdays. the rest of week we have to get to Poulton. We live in Weeton so it’s quite a journey costing us petrol which is now sky high.

There has been one removed from the Clifton Road Tesco. There were three now its down to two but sometimes one of them is shut down and that leaves only one.

I am concerned about high street shops, if people can’t get cash it will affect their trade. I do not want to see a cashless society as it removes freedom of choice.

I would like to raise awareness of this problem looming in the near future. Many people don’t have bank accounts and older people like myself find it hard to pay by cards online and have more chance of fraud on our cards.

Also if you pay by phone half of the bigger businesses take ages to answer. I waited over 30 minutes on the phone to be answered. I ended up hanging up as it said i would not be answered for 20 minutes... I waited 30 without an answer.

I would like to know how many others are concerned about the ATMs being removed, and the ones left charging you to draw out your own money.

If this is progress it is progress backwards and I think it is time the Government guaranteed free ATM machines in the community to be able to be accessed more freely and nearer to out places of residence. Or maybe it would be better for us being able to be paid in cash from our work places.

Something needs doing... and quickly

James Marsh

Weeton

ENERGY

Ignore luddites give us energy security

Recently, numerous Conservative MPs and peers called on the government to end the UK’s moratorium on fracking.

However Minister Zac Goldsmith refused saying, “Between just one and three per cent of UK gas comes from Russia”.

Why are we paying this man over £100,000 a year if he does not realise how much oil, gas, coal and electricity we are forced to import?

Every year the UK imports 3.5 billion tonnes of coal, 46.9 tonnes of oil, 17.7 TWh of electricity and 438 TWh of gas.

It makes no sense importing energy when there is enough oil and gas under the North Sea for at least 20 years and enough shale gas under our feet to last for 47 years.

Politicians must ignore the Green Luddites and ensure that the UK has energy security and is not dependent on foreign nations.

Clark Cross

Address supplied

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