Readers' letters - January 27

I have heard about plans to build 42 new homes on land between Bowerham Road, Lancaster, and the M6.

Local residents are objecting to the plans because the wildlife that currently inhabits that area has not been taken into account.

I am writing to support those residents, and to make a stand for preserving the wildlife that lives in and around the edges of our city.

So often in planning applications, wildlife is not taken into account.

It is as though we forget that we share this city with a huge variety of wildlife, and that these other species have a right to be here and to live without disturbance from humans.

We need, as a community, to recognise the importance of ‘edge-land’, those small areas on the edges of our city that consist of woodland, hedgerows, streams, ponds and patches of grassland.

These places might look scruffy and useless, but in fact they sustain all kinds of animals, birds and plants.

Some of the animals include foxes, stoats, frogs, deer, buzzards, garden birds and bats.

Once their habitat is gone, they too will be gone – forever.

The wild areas lying just beyond our doors and fences serve to remind us that nature is not just some remote mountain or protected park.

Nature really is on our doorsteps.

Moreover, we gain so much pleasure from being immersed in our local wildlife, especially if we make the effort to protect it.

So whether the plans are to build a road, a green village, or more housing on the edge of town, we need to remember that we share common ground with other species – birds and animals.

They don’t have a voice, so we need to speak up for them and assert their right to live where they are, in peace.

Laura Deacon

Address supplied

transport

We’ve lost another vital bus service

Another bus service lost – this time the Croston to Chorley service. Last year it was the bus to Preston plus a weekly bus to Southport.

One reason given is less funding from Lancashire County Council.

Please explain why other Labour-controlled councils – Merseyside and Greater Manchester – who have also lost funding from central Governments, still manage to give their OAPs free bus and rail travel.

Bad management springs to mind.

We have not been consulted whether people would be prepared to pay for the service to continue, and there was no notice on the bus to say the service will not operate after February 4.

It will also affect the traders in Chorley, more could be going out of business!

Consideration should be made to the quality of people’s lives, especially those who are dependant on the bus services to get out of the village, not everyone has a car!

No one seems to care.

Most party members are only interested in getting your vote.

They promise everything but seldom honour their promises when in council or Parliament.

I love living in Croston, so please, is it not within the powers-that-be’s powers to help these areas and to stop thinking we do not really matter?

Margaret

Croston

defence

Arms deals: Profits or human rights?

In two weeks’ time, the High Court in London will consider a case that could set a precedent and be instrumental in changing British arms export policy.

Judges will examine the legality of arms exports to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen.

For over two years, Saudi forces have inflicted a brutal and devastating campaign on the people of Yemen. The appalling consequences have been condemned by the U.N and the European Parliament. The Red Cross warns the country is on the edge of famine.

Philip Hammond, the then Foreign Secretary, said,”Support for the Saudis in every way practical, short of combat”will happen.

Unfortunately, the Government has stayed true to their word through the sales of arms.

Typhoon fighter jets used in the bombardment and missiles and bombs have even attacked civilian targets.

Saudi forces have used British-made cluster bombs, one of the cruellest and most deadly weapons of warfare.

Regardless of the outcome in court next month, we have already exposed how weak and broken British arms exports controls are.

A brutal dictatorship has created a humanitarian catastrophe, killed thousands of civilians and flouted international law, and yet Britain has continued arming and supporting it.

Instead of following its own rules on arms sales, the Government prioritised arms companies’ profits over human rights.

If that’s not enough to stop arms sales, then what more would it take?

Royston Jones

via email

culture

Maintenance not vandalism of Harris

I cannot say how delighted I was to read the letter from “Interested in art”. (LP Letters, January 23).

I had written on a similar subject some time ago, pointing out that the Harris building was just about the only thing that gave the town centre any gravitas, with hindsight I should have included the Miller Arcade.

With this latest very eloquent objection to the proposed vandalism of this majestic building, perhaps more people will show an interest.

I do not know where the money to finance this aberration is coming from but surely it would be better spent on the general maintenance of the building – how about painting the window frames for a start?

Valerie E.Andrews

St Annes on Sea

nostalgia

Sad news about father’s medal

Word has reached me that a photograph of my late father featured in your Retro section (LP January 14.)

In the photograph, my father was one of several police officers receiving his long- service medal.

Sadly, my father’s medal was stolen in 1991 from his house in Fulwood – also stolen was his father’s long-service police medal.

Both medals were in the name of Donald Fraser.

To lose the pair was distressing. They should, with my brother’s subsequent long-service medal, have made a trio of medals, all in the name of Donald Fraser.

It is tragic that this set – three generations of medals bearing the same name – was denied my family.

Naturally, if anyone knows the whereabouts of such medals, we would be delighted to be reunited with them.

Fiona Torrilla (nee Fraser)

East Grinstead, West Sussex