Readers' letters - September 16

On Monday morning, I had a lovely walk, only five minutes away from my home.

I walked in peace and quiet, picked some sloes from the wild hedgerows to make sloe gin, some damsons growing wild and lots of blackberries.

A large grey heron flew overhead and several people passed me, walking their dogs.

This is a patch of countryside in suburbia, an ‘oasis’ in a built-up area which surrounds Ingol Golf Course.

This area could be lost if the plan for a large housing estate is passed.

This proposal has been refused in the past.

This time the property developer has cynically appealed to PNE management and supporters by offering them a training ground next to the large housing estate, nearly 1,000 homes, even though most people who live in the areas around Walker Lane and Ingol Golf Course rejected and fought the last building proposal on this site.

There are many new housing developments being built at Cottam’s Hoyles Lane, Lightfoot Lane, Bartle and Whittingham, so there is no shortage of housing in these areas.

This proposal is to make money for the property developer.

It is not needed.

Other golf courses in other towns have been bought and built on and green spaces lost in urban sprawl.

This area is used as a leisure amenity by walkers, dog walkers and families.

It is a haven for birds and wildlife, away from traffic and easily accessible for all surrounding areas.

Natural green spaces, ancient hedgerows and streams contribute to our quality of life in urban areas.

Please do not add another large housing estate to destroy a lovely area and create more traffic and pollution.

Fulwood resident

I agree about BBC standards

Cleveleys Clever Clogs (LEP September 9) needn’t have described himself this adversely because he is absolutely right about standards slipping at the BBC.

As well as the items he mentions, since Brexit, we have been inundated with ‘withdraw ral’.

‘Snuck’ has been heard instead of ‘sneaked’, and that ugly word ‘stuff’ is now used universally in place of ‘things’.

Scriptwriters are even writing phrases like ‘go and get your stuff’ into lines for 1970s themed programmes when everyone would have said ‘things’.

During the Olympic Games, I was introduced to a new sport – that of counting YKs PH – that’s the number of times per hour the speaker says “you know” to no effect.

Some of those interviewed were excruciating in its repetition and some of the professional interviewers were not much better.

Not inconsiderate air time was being wasted – and if we really did know (“you know”) there would be no need to broadcast it at all.

Listening to Radio 4 between 8am and 9.30am brings an almost total cast of presenters with strong regional accents.

Whilst some of these are, to me anyway, reasonable, some are not!

The dress code of some orchestras have tumbled at the BBC Proms and now we have had the spectacle of a soloist in a major work swigging from a bottle of water on the stage at the Royal Albert Hall.

(However did we manage before these ubiquitous bottles became almost a human appendage, as the camel, in its turn, has its hump?)

All this – and much more – is a far cry from Lord Reath, the BBC’s founder, who demanded standard English at all times and that unseen presenters (it was radio only then) were expected to wear evening dress after 6pm.

Progress? The word needs a careful definition!

Neil Inkley, Walton-le-Dale

Paying tribute to library staff

I read with real sadness the depressing, but predictable news of cuts to the library service.

What made me most sad was the fact that the politicians still seem to have the need to blame other parties for the cuts, rather than concentrate on what effects these cuts have on the people who work in the libraries and the many who visit.

I think it is important to pay tribute to the staff of these libraries, who have spent many months on the knife edge not knowing whether they have a job or not, as the powers-that-be messed about with pointless and expensive consultations, only to reach the decision they had probably already started with.

My family and I are regular users and, throughout this saga, the staff have been professional and continued to go above and beyond to provide a service which they think their customers deserve, so thank you to them and I hope they flourish in the future, because their skills and good-natured care will be something we will all reminisce about in years to come. The fact is that communities need libraries if they are to stay communities.

Rebecca Hay via email

Suede shoes controversy

Regarding the school uniforms disputes, I saw the interview on TV with a young lady who had been sent out of school because she did not conform to new regulations. She was smartly and correctly dressed and the camera showed her black, laced shoes. Why had she been sent out? The shoes were suede, not leather!

Does this mean that every morning some staff member is going to be designated with the job of inspecting each pupil?

Some families have more than one child and can only afford cheaper brands – some thought should be given to these matters.

Edna Levi, address supplied

Brave new world loses sparkle

Somehow, the brave new world of Brexit loses its sparkle as we go surging back to the 1950s with the possible reintroduction of grammar schools. Is this prompting some to salivate over the lip-smacking possibility of the return of capital and corporal punishment?

ME Wright via email