Readers' letters - May 23

I read with interest two articles recently in the LEP, one about the cuts that LCC was having to make (with others, no doubt, further down the pipeline) and the other about the revised plans for Preston bus station.

On the one hand we have LCC making draconian cuts to our community services while, at the same time, building another community service, that of the youth zone, on the west side of said station.

Among the cuts being made currently are the proposed axing of some children’s centres.

Thus, with more cuts to come, how soon will it be that the slightly older youth centres, sorry, zones, will be targeted?

Thus one can only conclude one of the following will happen to the youth zone at the bus station:

a) It will open and almost immediately be shut down due to cuts to services (so, youths, enjoy it while you can);

b) It will be partially built before LCC realises that it will be a target for the cuts;

c) Somebody at LCC will realise that it will have to make all youth zones vulnerable to cuts, so will not proceed with building it.

Then we also appear to have being built the largest patio in Preston.

Where have all the flower beds gone that were in the original plans? Given that concreting over the whole area can lead to flooding while the flower beds would have allowed the rain to sink underground, as well as take up water for both transpiration and photosynthesis, this is a bad idea.

It also appears that this 20th Century Society appears to have approved this idea, leading me to the conclusion that they have no idea of 21st Century concepts such as climate change, so why should their opinion matter on the subject of the bus station?

Also, if this grand patio goes ahead, how soon will this grey, bland area be peppered with blobs of chewing gum (also mostly grey) issuing from the mouths of disgusting members of society who seem to think it their right to spit out their unused bits of gum onto pavements and flagged areas rather than waiting few more seconds to pop it into a litter bin – a concept which seems beyond their comprehension?

Oh, and God help those in our society who have sight problems and try to negotiate this vast bland area without falling over or banging into the camouflaged lumps of concrete masquerading as seating dotted around this area.

If this is the best that an American designer can come up with – and no doubt paid handsomely for it – then more fool LCC (or rather that should be us, the council taxpayer).

Finally, in the design, I see no change to the two biggest flaws of all with the original bus station:

1. The heavy doors which are almost impossible to move (I suggest someone from LCC goes up the A6 to see how Lancaster bus station do it. And butt out 20th Century Society. This is the 21st Century, so the travelling public want a 21st Century Bus Station).

2. The gate destination information boards which are placed at such a height that the travelling public cannot see the destination/route number signs on the buses unless they go right up to those horrible doors and look up.

As Fagin said in Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver!, I think I’d better think it out again.

Neil Swindlehurst, Walmer Bridge

How can we believe them?

They said there were weapons of mass destruction – there weren’t.

They said austerity would reduce the national debt – it has gone up.

They said being admitted to hospital at the weekend was dangerous – turns out it is the safest time.

Now they tell us we’ll be worse off if we leave the EU.

Enough said?

Ashtonian, Preston

We’re fighting for bus service

There was a letter in the LEP from a nameless person which asked where were our councillors in support of bringing the Orbit bus back (LEP May 17)?

This resident must not read the LEP regularly nor the political newsletters delivered over the last few months.

I do not think I could have fought more for this bus service, however I have not been listened to.

Preston Bus made this decision on purely commercial grounds, profit before people.

I have listened to residents who now have difficulty in getting to work, hospital and school.

I am meeting next week with a Labour and a Liberal Democrat councillor. We intend to join forces and put our concerns together and try to come up with some solution we can present to Preston Bus.

This is not a political issue but of concern to us all.

We will work together for the good of our residents.

Coun Christine Abram, Conservative, Lea Ward

The horror of puppy farms

I was shocked, but not really surprised, by the hard-hitting Panorama programme on Monday evening, exposing puppy breeders.

The Irish puppy farm was a hell-hole beyond belief.

At least the puppies would eventually leave and have a home.

It was the breeding bitches I felt sorry for.

They had no escape, no life and no hope.

Possibly they were even killed when they were no longer of any use to breed from.

Jennifer Bookbinder,

Address supplied

Will Farage join the Tories?

After the EU referendum, if the electorate vote out, will Thatcherite Farage, leader of UKIP, and his cronies finally pack in his boring party and go back and join the Tories?

Farage will vanish after June 23 if the vote for out wins.

There will be no point in them existing.

Expect job losses, mass

migration, draconian employment laws and low pay.

S Ellis via email