Celebrate city's architecture
It's certainly a pity that Preston attractions are left out of the "Enjoy Britain" selection (Evening Post, March 20) but your reporter does exaggerate a little when she suggests that St Walburge's has the tallest spire in Europe.
At 309ft it is actually the third tallest in Britain, and it's wonderful, but it would look a bit puny beside Ulm Cathedral in Germany which, at 530ft, is nearly half as tall again. I've been to the top - it's terrifying!
While on the subject of our city's heritage, Coun Ken Hudson says that the people (me included) who oppose the daft and gimmicky ideas for Winckley Square "want to retain Victorian ideas".
What exactly is wrong with that?
If Preston had been a little more willing to retain Victorian ideas it might, for example, have restored and retained its magnificent Victorian town hall.
But presumably Coun Hudson would have been among the first to sign up for Crystal House on the grounds that it represented progress.
Alan Crosby, Wellington Street, Preston

Car park would ruin my lovely views
I was interested to read that there is a nine-storey building planned for the open-air Avenham car park site - especially as I live opposite and have not heard one iota from the planners about it.
This building will tower over the flats I live in and block my view of St John's Minster and the city, which is one of the main reasons I moved here.
There is no doubt that my view and privacy are going to be adversely affected.
Irrespective of whether these flats and shops will benefit the area, surely those living nearby should be informed of what is going on and have the option to object.
Name and address supplied

Zoologist Mike was such a great guy
It was good to see the tribute to Michael Robinson recently. Mike was a distinguished zoologist of whom Preston can be proud.
After the early death of his father, Mike had to earn his living before taking his degree in Zoology as a mature student. He applied to do research under the supervision of Niko Tinbergen, the Nobel prizewinner who was then at Oxford University, but Niko agreed to take him on only if he obtained a first class honours degree.
This Mike did, and his doctoral thesis with Niko was on the defences various insects use to avoid being captured and eaten by birds and other predators. I was myself working in the same field at the University of Ghana when Mike and Barbara came there in 1970.
Mike also took advantage of the wealth of remarkable animals he encountered to publish fascinating studies.
One was of a terrestrial crab in Panama which was a favourite food of the local otter, but Mike noticed that some otters had a detached crab claw attached to their nose. He experimented with the crabs using a teddy-bear in place of an otter. When he made the teddy-bear 'attack' a crab, the creature would threaten it and if it could not frighten off the attacker it would pinch it with a claw and then break the claw off leaving it attached to the teddy-bear's nose!
When the crab next moulted its shell it would regenerate a new smaller claw in place of the one it had lost, but Mike argued that a real otter would have been frightened off by the pain of the claw in its nose, so a crab could often survive such an attack. Mike had a lively, enquiring mind, a keen sense of humour, was a brilliant lecturer, and above all was a good friend.
Malcolm Edmunds, Emeritus Professor of Zoology, University of Central Lancashire

Sink or swim idea to tackle mindless yobs
I see that members of the mindless yob element have escaped their secure institution again. This time the subject of their "fun" was two bus shelters and a supermarket trolley at Sherwood.
Sadly we can't punish them properly as, according to the experts, punishment of any kind turns decent lads into the very yobs we don't want and we can't have that.
Since they often excuse their actions as being committed out of boredom, may I tender a solution?
Give each of them a shovel and have them dig the foundations of the new floating hotel to be built at Preston Dock.
Jim Walker, via email

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