Readers' letters: Let’s stay local for our next holiday

So dig out your buckets and spades (sun tan cream optional) and head off down the motorway to a resort that you had long forgotten about.

Just think, no more frantic early morning dashes to the airport and having to queue for check-in and then again at security (belts and shoes off please) and then, after all that, trying to negotiate the obstacle course of the so-called ‘duty free shops’ and perfume counters with their highly inflated prices and then, after finding your gate and boarding your flight, it is only to find that you have to wait in the aisle while other passengers get rid of their hand luggage in the overhead lockers.

On arriving at your destination, you find that your allocated hotel room has no view to speak of (even though you requested one) but an intransigent receptionist will not transfer you.

On departure you find that you have to vacate the room by 11am (even though you might not be flying until 10pm). You can stay on for a few hours but only if you pay them an unreasonable amount of money. On returning from your holiday, you alight from your aircraft and face a long walk and queue to get through passport control and baggage reclaim (I can visualise you all nodding your heads while reading this because we have all been there) but it’s a wonderful feeling you have when you eventually get to your front door and step inside.

Since the 1960s, we have propped up foreign holiday resorts with our hard-earned cash but boy, are they missing the ‘Brits’ now.

Let’s all look afresh at our own country and what it’s got to offer because we have some wonderful seaside resorts of our own that are begging to be explored.

For your next holiday, why don’t you stay local and try Blackpool with its friendly guest houses and hotels and its wealth of attractions? So, grab a deckchair and roll up your trouser legs (you don’t have to be a mason), place your knotted hanky or a folded-up copy of the Lancashire Post on your head, lie back and dream of England

M Tipper, Penwortham

Drama keeps us hooked

The new three-part BBC One prison drama Time, written and produced by Jimmy McGovern, is his finest yet. The cast in this fine drama includes Sean Bean (Game Of Thrones), Stephen Graham ( Line Of Duty), Siobhan Finneran (Happy Valley) and Sue Johnston ( The Royle Family). The realism of prison life is portrayed well in two ways. A middle class teacher finds himself in prison and is consumed with guilt. He is played by Sean Bean. A prison officer with 21 years loyal service, played by Stephen Graham, risks his career to protect his son serving time in another prison.

A tense story which focuses on principles and punishment, it is sometimes difficult to watch with the violence but keeps you hooked all the same.

Stephen Briscoe via email

Test and go during Euros

Hundreds of football fans descended on Preston’s Flag Market on Sunday as England kicked off their Euro 2020 campaign with a 1-0 victory over Croatia.

With many exciting matches on offer over the next month, all residents without Covid symptoms are encouraged to #TestandGo by taking up the offer of free, regular, rapid coronavirus testing.

People are asked to get a rapid test before meeting up with friends and family and visiting places like pubs, shops, hairdressers and restaurants.

By getting tested, residents can tighten up Lancashire’s defence against the Delta variant, helping keep everyone’s friends, family and the local community safe.

Like so many of you, I will be rooting for England to

go all the way during the Euros. Hopefully we will have many exciting moments like the victory over Croatia at the weekend, but we must not take our eye off the ball.

Testing negative before you watch the match with others is one way you can enjoy the game, knowing you’ve done your bit for the team. If you do test positive, you can then take the steps to isolate and avoid scoring an own goal of passing the virus on to your friends and family.

For more information on how you can get a free, rapid test, visit https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/coronavirus/testing/testing-for-people-without-symptoms/?page=3.

Coun Michael Green

Lancashire County Councillor’s cabinet member for health and wellbeing