Readers' letters - February 10

Don't blame elderly for housing shortage

Reading a front page of a national newspaper, the headline reads Downsizing Revolution.

It seems elderly people are not only bed blockers but are now house hoarders.

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Ministers want older people living in big houses to give up their homes and go into sheltered accommodation.

Another headline further on reads, Ministers forecast migrants could make up four in 10 new households.

After reading Professor John Sutherland’s book, War on the Old, I am beginning to believe him.

If senior citizens are happy living in their houses, and their community, they should stay put and fight back. I am quite sure there are many older people who can still remember living in dire poverty and have many a story to tell.

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Prof Sutherland states: “Until British OAPs organise to set up a British Association of Retired Persons, they will suffer the fate of old animals in the jungle.”

Social housing has not been replaced at the rate it is being lost to the private market.

The need for housing that is both affordable and of good quality cannot be met in a half-hearted way.

Local authority housing is declining and demand is rising. The Government should be building more social housing.

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Allow even low earners to buy half a share of newly built houses until they can afford a mortgage.

Build more affordable homes.

Will the ministers who came up with the great idea for older people to downsize their homes be doing the same?

Will they give up one of their two homes and join the revolution?

I doubt it.

P O’Connor

via email

transport

Mind boggles at link road mess

It seems that Princess Alexandra (pictured) has been given the dubious honour of officially opening the Bay Gateway – the new Heysham to M6 link road – on Thursday, March 2.

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Hopefully she will not trip over the numerous cones and barriers, speed limits, etc, still in place as the contractors frantically try to sort out their mess of a road.

If it has been completed, why are the roundabouts looking like something out of a jigsaw puzzle with road works signs that are meaningless ... because no road works are being done?

Also why are there major build-ups and traffic jams each and every weekend on the M6 caused by the two lane constrictions around this supposed Bay Gateway?

If I was responsible as a contractor for this road then I would gladly throw myself into Morecambe Bay.

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It seems that the M6 is now to be plagued with yet more hold-ups at this very point, the Lune Viaduct, until mid-2017 for installation of communications. Why wasn’t this included at the time when you were ripping up the old M6 junction?

The mind boggles at the stupidity of the people who run the road and transport system in this country.

For example, last year I drove to the South of France, more than 600 miles, and did not meet a single stop until Valence – just a blip compared with the nightmare which the M6 has become. Somebody, please get a grip, or the Princess will get to see how dim we are in the North.

Will Walker

Address supplied

nhs

Open GP surgeries at weekends

It annoys me when the BMA states that GPs are being made ‘scapegoats’ for all the problems within the NHS.

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It’s not only the GPs that should come under attack, it’s the consultants and drug companies (as was highlighted a few weeks ago regarding the enormous profits they are making by overpricing generic drugs), while doctors and nurses in hospitals, at the sharp end, are having to deal with chaos within the NHS.

I was walking through Lancaster on a Sunday morning and, to be quite honest, what made me absolutely fuming was to see the A&E Department of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary in utter and absolute chaos, with ambulances waiting outside to admit ill people to A&E.

Yet, when I continued to walk through Lancaster, I saw all the GP surgeries closed. It makes me livid when I see GP surgeries enjoying the outdated and outmoded privilege of working a five-day week, and who, apparently, are turning a ‘Nelson’s Eye’ to all the problems at the RLI, plus other hospitals throughout the UK, and furthermore, the BMA and GPs have the audacity to blame the Secretary of State for Health and the Government. I strongly believe that GP surgeries, and the BMA, should be dragged kicking and screaming into the Britain of 2017.

Norman Tomlinson

Lancaster

traffic

Ideas for cutting car congestion

Re: Get Rid of Verge (traffic outside Royal Preston Hospital, LP Letters, February 8).

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How about making the zebra crossing outside Booths into a proper pelican crossing with traffic lights to ensure traffic flows much better and pedestrians all cross at the same time in safety when the lights change for them? The current situation does not help with nearly every driver giving way to pedestrians the moment they appear to approach the zebra crossing.

Another way traffic can be improved is a bus stop lay-by being made by cutting into the embankment to allow other traffic to pass safely when buses are stopping, which would allow other traffic to move more freely.

Also drivers can also help by keeping out of the yellow boxes if their exit is not clear.

They queue up for the car park, even when signs state “car park full”. Can they not read?

Lv45

Preston

nostalgia

Did you play for my football team?

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The above Looking Back shows Preston Schoolboys Football Team, who played Lancaster Boys on November 4, 1950, at Lancaster City’s ground, ‘Giant Axe’.

The competition was the second round of the English Shield and we lost 3-0.

I was 15 years old.

Frank Heyes, pictured in the background (smoking), was my teacher at St

Andrew’s School in Ashton, Preston.

Anyone who remembers or played at that time, contact Richard Naylor on 01257 791678.

Richard Naylor

Coppull

OPINION

Balanced and informative column

Re: Chris Moncrieff– a respected journalist of the old school.

Just to say how much I enjoy his column, always pertinent, balanced and informative

Mac

via email

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