Readers' letters - March 30

In the past few days I have witnessed a red light and a pedestrian on a zebra crossing being ignored, impatient dangerous overtaking and general lack of consideration of other road users.

Multiply these few days to a year, and to other people countrywide, and you will see that these are not rare occurrences.

Was it ‘white van man’, a motorcyclist or another type of motorised vehicle? No, just the scourge of 21st Century roads – cyclists!

Sensible, law-abiding cyclists reading this will say, “That does not refer to me”, and if so, all credit to you as I appreciate there are sensible cyclists out there.

However, like all road users, there are the minority that give the rest a bad name.

Maybe the sensible ones could educate the inconsiderate ones?

So, I have decided to treat all cyclists according to their lowest common denominator – the inconsiderate cyclist!

I will assume that you will block the carriageway, possibly swerve without warning, or generally not adhere to the Highway Code.

To that end, I will sound my horn as I approach any cyclist to let them know I am there. No doubt I will get the all too common abuse from some (usually in groups), however, it may avoid a potential accident, or other dangerous situation.

However, that is just me trying to do my little bit. I would also like to see the police prosecuting more cyclists. When was the last time you saw, or heard, anyone being prosecuted in relation to their cycling?

More prosecutions might get the message across to others who blatantly flout the law. I appreciate the police are busy, however, every little bit would surely help our roads to be safer places.

I’m not trying to be a killjoy to those who get a great deal of enjoyment, and the health benefits, from cycling, but I feel something needs to be done as this problem seems to be worsening, and will only serve to make our roads more stressful, and dangerous.

John Ormerod

Clitheroe

environment

Paint tins and blue bins woe

It’s 10.50am on Wednesday, March 29, and the especially assigned Chorley Bin Police are rooting through my blue bin, alerted by the refuse collectors too precious to remove a couple of old dry empty paint tins before emptying the bin as normal.

This is what the bin police said to me: “They’re probably empty and solid but could drip from the wagon if full.”

In the past anything unsuitable has always been left by the side of the bin – so why not a couple of empty paint tins, eh?

Here I was defending a simple error against someone who had nothing to offer by way of getting the now corrected paint tin-free blue bin emptied this week.

All he could do was skulk off around the corner disappearing in a puff of yellow jacket – no thought for children, pregnant mothers or the elderly – just the one-shot rule – “Any blue bins containing paint tins will not be emptied” and that’s that.

So be warned, no paint tins anywhere near your blue bin otherwise all hell will break loose.

Joe Dawson

Withnell

welfare

Stun animals before slaughter

I write with regard to the food and drink article about steakhouses, in particular one which uses halal meat (LP February 9).

Halal entails killing the animal without first stunning it.

Slaughtering is a gory job at the best of times, doing it without first stunning is entirely wrong.

The chief veterinary officer and all his vets are strongly opposed to this practice, and have made their views known, due to the unnecessary suffering it causes to the animal.

Despite their opposition to it, the Government refuses to act or do anything to ban it.

It’s unnecessary suffering on a large scale.

I’ve seen halal slaughter with sheep.

With moving live animals, nothing is 100 per cent efficient.

D R Rimmer

Grange-Over-Sands

energy

Protesters are being selfish

Why has Lancashire County Council had to introduce a 20mph speed limit on Preston New Road near the Cuadrilla site?

This wasn’t needed when United Utilities laid a water pipe in the same fields, so why is it necessary now?

The answer, of course, is the fact that anti-fracking protestors are down there every day, wandering in the road and distracting motorists.

If they weren’t there, this speed restriction wouldn’t be required.

They were offered a dedicated area in which to conduct their protests, which would have improved road safety, but they turned it down.

Why should the rest of us now experience longer journey times between Preston and Blackpool just because they selfishly refused to carry out their demonstrations peacefully in an area intended to improve the safety of protestors and other road users?

Brent Crossley

Blackpool

european union

Brexit reality will dawn

I was discussing with a friend the steps being taken by Mrs May’s Government to cut our ties with the European Union.

We both speculated on a scenario where a film screenwriter had attempted to devise a plot about some government plumbing the depths of ineptitude.

If our writer simply recorded what has happened in the UK since June 23 in relation to Brexit, and used that as the storyline, commissioning film companies would have simply batted away the script as beyond belief.

Put another way – “you could not make it up”.

It is high time that Brexiteers engaged in a bit of intellectual honesty.

I warn them, in the next 12 months, reality will break in and they will be forced to acknowledge both the cost and the futility of their project.

John Cole

Address supplied

Tragedy

Memorial for PC Keith Palmer

The terrorist outrage in Westminster has thrown into stark relief the fantastic job the police and other emergency services do

day in, day out, on our

behalf.

We should never take that for granted and I personally think that, as a mark of the nation’s respect and gratitude, a memorial plaque should be erected in PC Keith Palmer’s honour.

He went out to do his job protecting democracy and never came home.

We owe him a debt we can never repay but it is appropriate that there is

a permanent reminder to

all of his bravery and sacrifice.

Paul Nuttall

UKIP Leader and North West MEP