Food speech hides bigger issue
I have just been listening to Gordon Brown and I am sorry but his idea that we throw away £450 worth of food a year is the biggest load of hogwash in ages.
While there may be a few well-off people who think nothing of doing that, most people can't afford to be wasteful and have to watch every penny they spend.
Mr Brown is saying this to take our attention off the main reason for soaring prices in the shops - the cost of fuel.
Once petrol prices go up, everything else goes up as well.
It's about time the Prime Minister started to listen to the people and the people started to unite to show him and others like him that we have had enough.

Tony Wiggans, via email

Council's action on pay cuts to blame
You kindly printed a letter from me some weeks ago with regard to the plight of my daughter and some 400 of her colleagues at Preston City Council whose salaries are being reduced.
I cannot believe the comments that have been made in reply to these by the leader of the council and the chief executive.
The job evaluation scheme was forced on councils by the Government but it is the way that Preston City Council has interpreted the scheme that is disputed.
They are using it as an excuse for wage cuts as my daughter and her colleagues can testify.
Coun Hudson and Mr Carr should realise if they resign tomorrow, the council would carry on as normal. If the 400 or so staff who have lost money resign it will be up the creek without a paddle.
The staff have now been told that it is going to be at least another six months before they know if their appeals have been successful. No-one has been employed to carry out the appeals, so the council's own Human Resources department and union representatives are to hear them.
It is time they realised it is people's lives and livelihoods they are messing about with.

Name and address supplied

Raise cash for free bus pass extension
I see from the LEP that our councils intend to end the late night extension to the free bus travel scheme for disabled people and pensioners.
The councils claim that there is insufficient cash from the Government to fund the extension after 11pm.
How hard did they look for other ways to cut back on council expenditure before they once again hit the most vulnerable?
The council leader says they have had to use taxpayers' money to subsidise the scheme. I didn't realise that, as people in receipt of bus passes, we ceased to be taxpayers!
Anyway, the subsidy is actually of benefit to paying passengers. Without the free pass holders many of these late buses might become non viable and so be cancelled, leaving those who have to pay under curfew too.
The bus companies are all in agreement in their opposition to ending this extension to the scheme. Think again, councillors! The pensioners and disabled of our county deserve better.

Jeff McCann, Hoghton, via email

Clear road of debris and mess after work
Imagine the scene. It is 5am on a runway somewhere in the UK. The heavy machinery and trucks have all departed from laying a new section of asphalt. Every sign and cone has gone. Tools have been counted and checked. Some of the workforce stay behind to start the big clean-up.
Every piece of loose asphalt debris is swept away. Runway and grass verges are checked again for lost tools, nuts and bolts. These people will sweep the entire runway for debris. Around 5.45am they will hand the runway back to the airport and just after 6am the first plane will land, knowing that the runway is safe.
This operation will continue night after night until the entire runway is resurfaced.
Contrast the mess left around Winckley Square and Avenham Lane in Preston.
It is 5pm. The asphalters have gone. Diversion and "road closed" signs are still in position, even though it is actually now possible to use the roads, albeit slowly. Asphalt and debris is strewn all over.
Professionals and amateurs – such is life.

Avenham dweller
(name and address supplied)

Transplant patients need more choice
Transplant patient Carolyn Hastings' planned sky dive to raise awareness of the transplant register, will certainly highlight the plight of the thousands of people in the UK.
There are more than 6,200 people waiting for a kidney, an annual increase of 8%, with just over 2,000 patients being lucky enough to receive one this year.
Current health policy advocates delivering care closer to the patient's home. Shouldn't more patients have a choice?
Samantha Addie, Dialysis Options, via email
Afghanistan ideas are not practical
Former Foreign Secretary John Reid said our troops were being sent to Helmand Province to do a simple holding job and that there would possibly be no shot fired.
This typical "politician speak" has proved to be far from the truth.
It was also reported that our presence there was to prevent the continuing production of opium and heroin from poppies, encouraged by the Taliban among rural farmers to finance the purchase of arms and explosives.
How is it that this has been a bumper year for the Afghans, bringing much suffering to drug users throughout the world?
The truth is that Afghanistan is an ungovernable state in which our deluded Government is prepared to sacrifice soldiers' lives trying to introduce democracy where none has ever existed.

John Tilley, The Oaks, Chorley

Farming and industry suffering in EU rules
In reply to Mr Abram (Letters June 9) who said I'm narrow minded over the European Union.
Our farming has always been the most efficient in Europe but years of low prices have left little cash for reinvestment and thousands of jobs have gone.
We are now operating at probably below 70% of our potential, Germany and France have been taking 45% of CAP payments, putting us on a very unlevel playing field.
As our fishing industry declined, EU maritime countries have increased their fleets aided by large subsidies (paid by us).
As for UK industry in general, there is no doubt that EU legislation has made everything more difficult and more expensive.
Mr Abram claims our membership will ensure peace in Europe, but personal and national freedom is the primary need of all people and there is precious little in a federal Europe where EU dictats overrule the laws of all member states.

Jim Leach, Cow Hill, Haighton

Picture of the park
With reference to the photo of the canal bridge in Looking Back on June 25, I think it was on Woodplumpton Road at Lane Ends before the existing one was built.
The photographer was looking towards Haslam Park with Parkfield Club to the left.

Jim Stott, Preston

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