Letters - Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Poverty and crime among the young
Burton's BiscuitsBurton's Biscuits
Burton's Biscuits

Re the article in The Gazette on the increase in youth violence in the town.

Crime waves are not new. In a newspaper article from 1916 even the King and Queen were concerned by the increase in juvenile delinquency, which was blamed partly on fathers going into war service.

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Re the article in The Gazette ‘Taking the Biscuit’ (Your Say, February 22). Young people stealing biscuits from Burton’s factory is due to lack of parental control. As petty crime can develop into serious crime it has to be nipped in the bud. If the company loses profits it means some workers lose jobs.

Growing up in a city in the 1950s there were gangs.

People knew each other, relatives lived nearby and community disapproval was a weapon of social control. There wasn’t so much fear of crime then and drugs were not so prevalent.

But communities were destroyed in the 1960s.

It is another world today, with people always on the move and hardly knowing their neighbours. People are more fearful of crime than ever.

The structural arrangements of society do not give every young person a fair chance in life.

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Poverty and deprivation are sources of crime and it is a bleak future ahead for some if they are not given the right help and support.

I recently read an article, ‘working class white boys bottom of the pile’, with 40 per cent of them less likely to go to university.

Some do not have role models at home who they turn to for education?

Teachers do work hard and the fault does not lie with them.

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We need more trades and jobs for young people and adults. Employers should stop harping on about limited education skills of some young people and give them a chance with on-the-job training.

Blackpool has partly a transient population and people do come with social problems and need help and support.

Lots of good work goes on in Blackpool helping people, but cities have regenerated and prospered while towns like Blackpool have been neglected.

The divide between the rich and poor is still with us.

Name and address supplied

ENVIRONMENT

Tackle the root cause of problem

Re Mick Swift’s letter ‘dredging rivers’ (Your Say, February 21), and why it is wrong.

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Big problems require simple solutions for both long term climate emergency and short term flood risk. People want flood barriers and dredging, but it wont solve the root causes and we can’t build ever higher and dig ever deeper for ever, look to the source not the damage in front of your nose. We need to work with natural processes and understand the big picture.

we know that floods can be reduced by 25 per cent if we restored all the peat on the hills of Wales (for example block drains and stop the burning) it will catch rainfall and carbon, more if we plant trees and other things as well that increases biodiversity, and the landscapes will look amazing to visit.

In Lancashire we need to stop the grouse shooting and all the flood causing that goes with its management, plant trees on the uplands replace the over grazed compacted pastures that cause even faster run off .

Around Blackpool its been a lack of routine maintenance with the drains and gullies at present.

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Read this and think where our money may be best spent to help and where we might get the most benefit. Mr johnson promised 30 million trees by 2025 before the election.

They need to start planting them now immediately. We need to work with nature and lose the god complex that we can control nature. I really feel for everyone affected, but we must apply sound thinking to the solutions.

John Warnock

Armistead Estate

Fleetwood

SPORT

Solution to issue of heading the ball

As the evidence of long term damage caused by heading the ball increases, and the FA has banned heading in junior football, it is only a matter of time before changes have to come to the professional game. One could be to ban heading direct from a goal kick, before the ball has bounced. This change could be easily incorporated and would significantly reduce the volume of high-impact headers in a game, whilst still allowing for the excitement of a player nodding in a cross or a corner.

Phil Cray

address supplied

TV

Decision has been made already...

Am I the only person in the UK that didn’t know that the decision to make pensioners pay for TV license had been made.

Les Rigby

via email

BREXIT

Solution to lack of investment?

Won’t the perceived lack of investment in the North be taken care of by the promised massive influx of cash from Brexit?

Steve Ives

via email