Readers' letters - August 7

It has been wisely said that political parties lose elections, they do not win them.

The widespread feeling that Jeremy Corbyn cannot be trusted has been borne out by his election promise to pay off student debt, followed by a rapid denial after the vote.

As cynical political bribes go this was a peach, but only the naive young and Labour’s core vote fell for it, so he got his way and lost.

Then the Tories, apparently equally keen to lose the election, tried to introduce numerous unpopular or irrelevant policies rather than concentrating on the mandate they already had – to leave the EU.

Determined to emulate their election losing streak in Government, they now roll out Michael Gove’s truly bonkers ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2040.

No one in Mr Gove’s ministry seems to have realised the enormous economic consequences.

The UK will need a expansion of our electricity generation capacity on a scale we have never managed in the past.

Nuclear, like Hinckley Point C, cannot be built fast enough, so that means new coal and gas-fired generators because wind turbines are too intermittent to rely on.

On top of almost doubling our existing (inadequate) generation capacity, the grid itself will have to be expanded and rebuilt.

In addition, barring the roads, almost the entire road transport sector and all its energy infrastructure will have to be replaced in 23 years.

It’s just not feasible.

And a realistic cost must be in excess of £600bn. It makes leaving the EU without a deal a piece of cake.

Nick Martinek

Address supplied

environment

Stick to the Local Plan

Re: the proposed housing development (450 houses) on the Ingol Golf Course.

Following the rejection of the initial proposal, Coun Rankin stated that the Local Plan was for guidance purposes only.

No, it is not.

The plan was formulated following a very lengthy consultative and approval process and is fully acknowledged at local, regional and national levels. It also feeds into a whole variety of statistical data nationally.

As the recent noises emanating from city hall appear to be backing the revised application, which is also again contrary to the approved Local Plan, perhaps the officers could be equally “so minded” to instruct all property developers of the various developments currently underway in North Preston to place their schemes on temporary hold pending further review, along with all of those schemes not yet started.

This would ensure that the volume of green space lost as a consequence of the possible approval of the 450 housing units, along with the already approved training complex, could be fully compensated for elsewhere within the various schemes already approved within the North Preston Area.

These would then require some downsizing to enable green space to be freed up, thus ensuring the overall status quo of the approved Local Plan.

I am sure that all of the developers affected will be keen to support councillors and officers in achieving such a reasonable and sensible compromise to maintain the credibility of not only the approved Local Plan, that the developers initially supported and recognised within their planning applications, but also the credibility of those elected council representatives who approved and supported the very same plan at the outset some time ago.

Democratia

et Simplicitate

Fulwood

Preston

european union

Brexit will be

a disaster

Brexit will be a disaster for the UK economy and for our quality of life. The penalties far outweigh the benefits.

The Brexiteers campaigned that we would save £350m a week by leaving the EU. This was a lie.

In fact the annual net payments in 2015 were £162m per week (£8.5bn).

What the Brexiteers did not tell us was that we would have to pay an exit charge of around £60bn.

So for the first seven years, we would not save any money at all, we would be paying more.

Leavers said they wanted “to take back control” but by invoking Article 50 we have “lost control”.

Fifty per cent of our exports go to the EU, only 10 per cent of the EU exports come to the UK.

So we will be in a weak bargaining position and we will be dependent on the 27 EU countries giving us an acceptable deal.

Take farming as an example. We export 40 per cent of our lamb and 75 per cent of our wheat and barley to the EU.

If we fail to negotiate

an agreement with the EU, the World Trade Organisation will impose a 51 per cent tariff on lamb exports.

This will lead to an immediate collapse in the market. Similar tariffs will be imposed in other sectors of our economy.

Now that we are aware of the harsh reality of Brexit, the public should be given the opportunity to have a second referendum based upon the true facts.

Mike Turner

via email

environment

Criminals could clean up city

This city of ours is looking rather unkept over the past couple of years.

One can walk around just about anywhere around the city these days and find every street littered with weeds, some of them four feet tall that have never been removed for years.

Have you no pride in your city, Preston Council?

People pay fortunes in council tax every year and this shambles of a council have no pride in the city.

They only seem interested in the students and university.

If you can’t be bothered, Preston Council, to tidy up your city, then why don’t you get criminals doing community service to clean it up?

James Parkinson

Ashton

food & drink

Positive review, harsh marking

As a long-term reader, one of my favourite features is the Food and Drink article – which often influences my choice of dining out venues (LP August 3). I was particularly interested in the assessment of the Green Man in Inglewhite, as it used to be a favourite of mine in the days when it was run by a lady called Dorothy and her son.

The reviewer was obviously impressed with the quality of food, apart from her husband’s over-done egg, and service level, despite being busy with “Stan’s party”, so it puzzled me to note the relatively low scoring. Have I missed something – or perhaps your reviewer is more critical than her colleagues in her marking convention?

David Bunting

Cottam