Readers' letters - August 3

Am I alone in finding the current media coverage of Diana Princess of Wales to be offensive and in poor taste?

Twenty years after her tragic death we are being bombarded by lurid editorial features in the national press.

The latest hyena to join the pack devouring her reputation is Channel 4.

It has purchased tapes of Diana’s private conversations with her former voice coach Peter Settelen and intends to publish them in a documentary.

He should be ashamed of himself for profiting from selling these tapes, which reveal intimate details of her marriage to the Prince of Wales and her life after her divorce.

Princes William and Harry have recently bared their ‘childhood’ souls in the media, while it is understandable that they wished to make their personal feelings known to the public – was it wise to do so?

They must be very hurt by having their parents’ personal and intimate details revealed to all and sundry.

Do the public really wish to have her memory besmirched by the gutter press and media? I certainly do not.

Prince Charles is certainly not blameless in this matter, his marital affair with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, being the cause of Diana’s divorce.

Yet he must be deeply hurt by William and Harry making little or no reference to him in their memories of life with their mother.

To now reveal these tapes on television will only add more sorrow for all of them.

Diana was very much loved by the nation. Her kind compassionate empathy, together with her many good charitable works, made her truly a Princess of the people for the people.

Let her rest in peace.

Cyril Olsen

Address supplied

heritage

No choice over theatre seats

M Robinson asks: “How could they?” about Chorley Little Theatre’s plans to replace the seats (LP Letters, July 21).

The fact is we have no choice.

At a cost of over £80,000, it is not a decision we took lightly, but the current seats are falling apart and need replacing sooner rather than later.

At the moment, we have a few seats out-of-action

and it’s only going to get worse.

Our biggest fear is someone being sat in a seat that collapses under them and getting injured.

That in turn leads to us having fewer seats to sell and not meeting demand and losing income, which then puts the whole venue’s future in the balance.

The current seats have been in the venue a few decades and are second-hand: the wood and metal is breaking and the bolts are coming out.

They can’t simply be refurbished.

We’re taking this opportunity to answer customer feedback about the seats and improve comfort and legroom.

The replacement seats are still ‘traditional’ cinema seats, in keeping with the character of the building and will fit in great.

We think that the hundreds of people who’ve donated to our fundraising campaign shows the idea of new seats is a popular one, and we’re really grateful for their support.

We love our venue and are committed to its heritage but our main priority is continuing to stage great shows to happy audiences, and we don’t want to be worrying about seats.

The new seats make their debut at our next play in September, The Rise And Fall of Little Voice, and we hope M Robinson will try them out and understand why we’ve had to take this action now.

Ian Robinson (no relation)

CADOS Chairman

Chorley

Little Theatre

transport

Queries about electric cars

If the Government has an aspiration by 2040 to allow only electric-powered vehicles on the roads, when there are more than 31 million cars today plus goods wagons, there could be two major problems which I

hope the Government will resolve.

A high percentage of vehicles will be charged up in the evening or night.

This will put a very large load on the National Grid.

Will there be sufficient increase in generated electricity to carry this

out?

Secondly, quite a large number of cars are parked overnight, not in a driveway or car park but on the road, especially in towns and cities.

How will the cable, which will carry the current to the battery, reach the car?

Over the pavement?

Perhaps by 2040 electricity will travel by WiFi ?

Paul Helmn

Charnock Richard

society

Scooters are much too fast

Just a line to ask why mobility scooters are not governed by some sort of ruling regarding speed, especially in busy areas such as towns?

The number of times I have been forced to try and move out of the way of some of these maniacs is ridiculous. They seem to think that they don’t need to slow down.

Pedestrians take their life in their hands when these people are about.

All I ask is that they slow down before someone is seriously injured or worse!

Anon

industry

Devastated was wrong word

I was interested to learn from Alan Walsh, of the NorthWest Chamber of Commerce, that business tenants had been “devastated” (LP, July 28).

After 30 years running several businesses, all I can say is that, if being given nine months’ notice to relocate, with the help of the borough council, amounts to “devastation”, then he must have had a charmed life.

Or maybe I have the wrong understanding of what “devastated” means.

In which case I need to report that yesterday I was devastated to find I had no change for the parking meter, devastated when my shoelace became untied and, when I returned home, devastated to find we had run out of milk.

The Ashtonian

nostalgia

A book journey through time

The article that appeared in the Retro section about my book, A Journey in Time through Goosnargh, Whittingham and Inglewhite, that has recently been published, omitted details on how to purchase my book (LP August 2).

If anyone would like a copy, I can be contacted on 01253 724035 or rigbyjanet5

@gmail.com. You can also find details on my Facebook page, Goosnargh and Whittingham Past.

Janet Rigby

via email