Parents do need special bays
In answer to 'name and address supplied' regarding parent and child parking places (Letters, March 29)I would like to say how inconsiderate and thoughtless you are.
I have a two-year-old daughter and a seven-month-old son and I would not be able to go shopping without these places. I need the space to open the doors enough to get the child seat out of the car and into the trolley. I cannot believe you are so narrow-minded.
Yes, I had children knowing what it would be like, but not knowing that such opinions have lasted out of the Dark Ages. These bays are needed as much as disabled bays, and fines should be enforced accordingly. If the fines are not enforcable in law, then there should be a barrier system in place to ensure people like you do not abuse the system and make life harder for us mums than it already is!
Name and address supplied

Not always easy to get an appointment
Like the writer of 'The times they are not a-changin for some people', I too have despaired at the length of waiting times for scan results, but I had to resort to desperate measures to sort mine out.
I had an MRI scan last September. I phoned the consultant's secretary in December, who said I should have had an appointment by then. She promised to get me an appointment early in the New Year and in January I got an appointment card for February.
A couple of weeks later I got a letter cancelling the appointment and moving it to May. This would have meant an almost nine-month wait since my scan. I was not prepared to accept this and wrote to the Orthopaedic Directorate to say so, getting the statutory letter in reply telling me that my complaint had been passed to Customer Care and I would get a response within 25 days.
So I wrote to my MP, Mark Hendrick, and he in turn wrote to the Customer Care manager. In all it took three letters, both from me and Mr Hendrick, for me to get a phone call offering me an appointment on March 6 at 5pm.
I was there on time but did not get to see the consultant until 8pm.
He was very apologetic about the wait, and I am happy to say that the outcome was that I had one of the best consultations I've ever had. The moral of this story is that you have to stick up for yourself in this kind of situation.
Name and address supplied

No common sense in patient shoppers
With regard to the letters about the shopping spree by patients at the Royal Preston, it just shows the lack of common sense by certain patients, and the lack of authority of senior staff on the wards.
Not only are these patients endangering the recovery of themselves by leaving the hospital grounds before being discharged, but are also endangering their fellow patients on the wards, and no doubt they would be first to criticise the hospital authority if MRSA infection was found on the ward.
In fairness to the staff on the wards, I realise the pressures placed upon them are at present make nursing difficult, but surely the responsibility of in-patients leaving wards rests with a senior staff member such as a sister or charge nurse.
If patients ignore the wishes of those who imply the rules, then I think they should sign a form taking the responsibility of their welfare away from those nursing them back to health.
G D Pearce, Maudland Bank, Preston

Test flying TSR2 was team exercise
May I correct the statement (LEP, April 1) that Wing Commander Jimmy Dell was the only person to test fly the TSR2.
I am sure that Jimmy, one of the greatest test pilots of all time, would have wished your readers to be reminded that test flying the TSR2 was a team exercise shared between Roland Beamont, who was at the controls for its first flight on September 27 1964, Jimmy Dell himself and Don Knight.
All three were, on different occasions, the pilots in command of TSR2 during the sadly curtailed series of 24 test flights during 1964/65 before the aircraft was summarily cancelled by the Wilson Government.
Nor should it be forgotten that their accompanying navigators on the flights were at various times Don Bowen, Peter Moneypenny and Brian McCann.
James H Longworth, Author of Triplane to Typhoon

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