Readers' letters - July 19

Re: Child Hunger Summer Plea. I couldn’t believe the above front page headline and was shocked by it (LP July 19). But not shocked in the way that might have been expected.

When I grew up, my parents hadn’t two halfpennies to rub together, yet we never went hungry, never went without clothing and shoes, and never missed out on birthday or Christmas presents. Of course, we did not have money for the little extras children always hanker for but, as long as there was food on the table, the rest didn’t matter.

So why do parents not have enough money to feed their children? If they are so poor they are unable to provide the basic necessities of life, then they will be receiving every benefit known to man.

So what is their income being spent on? What are their priorities? It’s not right to keep castigating people like me as heartless when we question how family money is spent. It is not right to keep playing on people’s feelings to fill the gap because they, many of whom themselves are on low incomes yet manage to budget, will yet again be expected to give what they themselves can ill afford.

Until it is thoroughly looked at, nothing will ever change. It shouldn’t need much more than common sense to help folk to learn to budget. Parents have to start saying no to unrealistic demands from their children until the basics are paid for.

As for those old chestnuts of “they have a mobile phone etc”. Many of those ‘chestnuts’ do have some truth in them because they are considered by today’s generation to be a costly necessity of life.

Pay as you go would be an answer, along with a rule as to how much can be spent per week on it. I’m sure the savings would more than put food on a table for a week in most households! Holidays are not necessities, nor designer clothes or meals out.

I ask how do children who have much of what past generations could only dream of be going short on food?

It really is time to prioritise and, along the way, savings will be made to pay for what does matter. All of us need to be thankful that we in this country have no idea what real poverty is.

My childhood was not poverty-struck but my parents had to live within their means which meant some things we had to do without.

Many families were like that and one thing we didn’t have was foodbanks.

C Cross

via email

society

Be kind, not ignorant

I was disappointed to read of the young lad, who has apparently been diagnosed as autistic, being denied the opportunity to attend the end of term party with his fellow pupils, especially so when his parents had said they would accompany and supervise him (LP July 14).

The organisers have revealed a lack of awareness and compassion and missed a great opportunity to be role models and teach their own children some important lessons about life, values and caring.

I was brought up to follow the maxim,”do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you”.

It is sad that those who decided to prevent this young boy (pictured with mum Katy) attending the event did not follow similar advice.

Ignorance gets in the way of enlightenment and kindness.

However, ignorance can be tackled by education and enabling understanding

I hope that in due course the school will ensure that their pupils are taught the values of caring, kindness and supporting others less fortunate than themselves so that they, in turn, can enlighten their misguided parents

Malcolm Rae OBE

Fulwood

traffic

Safety first, plan ahead

You don’t need to be an Einstein or Carol Vorderman to deduce that Preston Road is, by far and by a very significant margin, the busiest road into and out of Longridge.

It is known by all local residents that numerous fatalities have occurred within the past few years alone, along the one or two mile stretch from Longridge to Grimsargh.

After each serious accident, there is usually talk of road improvements and indeed a few improvements have been carried out over the years, including the reducing of the speed limit.

Now, back to the title of my post.

Plan Ahead.

Especially given the size of the Water Meadows development and given the location of the development exiting directly onto Preston Road with its very well known statistically proven track record of being dangerous.

Why was there no stipulation in the planning phases of that development to include a mini roundabout onto Preston Road?

The narrow road exiting Water Meadows is a very poorly designed narrow T-junction with very poor visibility (especially towards Preston).

Had there been a mini roundabout, the fatal accident on July 2 probably would not have happened.

These housing developments are being thrown up all around this once quaint town of Longridge with seemingly little regard to the way in which they are connected to the local main road network.

To this end, the developers and, more importantly, our local planning departments, should put safety first.

It is not rocket science.

Please make these places as safe as they can be.

John Hough

via email

technology

Invest in broadband

Re: HS2 (LP Letters, July 13).

All we need to do is to stop the huge white elephant that is (or will be) HS2 and divert that money into providing truly super fast broadband for everyone.

This would enable video conferencing of such high quality (maybe even holographic conferencing) that travelling to business meetings would be a thing of the past and there will be no need for this vanity project that will end up costing us billions more than it should!

John Hewitt

via

LEP Facebook

fund-raising

Your support helped us

Garstang Soroptimists would like to say thank you to the people of Garstang and the surrounding districts for the support and purchases they made at our bric-a-brac stall on July 1.

We raised nearly £200 towards our current charity – Classrooms in the Clouds, which builds schoolrooms in Nepal and gives the children a chance of education.

Again, a big thank you to you all for your continued support of our works.

www.sigarstang.org.uk

Lesley Rainford

Secretary to SI Garstang

health

NHS came top, the US bottom

The NHS has been ranked the number one healthcare system in a comparison of 11 countries. It was praised for its safety, affordability and efficiency, but fared less well on outcomes such as preventing early deaths.

The research by the Commonwealth Fund and a US think tank looked at countries including the US, Canada, France and Germany. The US system, the one the Tory Government wants to adopt, came bottom.

SPG via email