Readers' letters - July 21

Same old, Same old….

Last Thursday, I attended the Homes England Consultation event for the new masterplan for the former Whittingham hospital site.

This followed the usual format of some glossy billboards with nice fluffy ‘artists’ impressions’ of what the site might look like but scant detail.

The usual bright young men in suits were there from the latest set of ‘consultants’.

They explained that this new master plan would be wonderful for the site and could be delivered.

All they needed was to build more homes, and some (most, from what I could see) would just need to be on the pleasant green fields surrounding the oh, so tricky and difficult main hospital site.

What happened to the previous plan for 650 homes? Ah, well, ‘they’ got that wrong, I was told.

Things have changed, more homes are needed now, the site isn’t so attractive to developers, too much infrastructure is needed, there are too many complications and so

on.

They assured us they had got it right this time and the site would be developed and a new planning permission would be sought in October.

This would be an ‘all bets off’ submission and all the hard fought contributions to transport, cycle routes and sustainability would be discarded.

Any monies contributed would go to the ‘City Deal’ and be spent in North West Preston around Bartle and those developments, most likely.

Nothing for us locals it seemed…

The man from the ministry managed to stop eating his sandwiches long enough to make it clear that we should just leave them to get on with it. They knew best and had been working jolly hard to get developers interested in the rest of the site that Taylor Wimpey no longer wanted.

It was somehow our fault for ‘rushing’ them in 2014, into an agreement that, despite what we were told at the time, wasn’t sustainable or deliverable…

But anyway the consultation has been held and that box is ticked and we all had our chance to have our say on a Thursday afternoon in July if we weren’t at work or looking after children…

I believe comments can be still be submitted to [email protected]

Jonathan Abbey

Whittingham

We’re doing our part, are you?

I fully agree with the hosepipe ban if it happens, we waste far too much water.

Since my water meter was installed, it is amazing how handy water butts are (of course it helps if it rains occasionally).

It reminds you how precious this commodity is which we all take for granted.

I gave up the fight to keep my grass green after a week or so, as it gradually turned to hay.

What really annoys me is the smug attitude of United Utilities in interviews, saying they react promptly to reports of water leaks.

This certainly does not seem to be the case when I reported a leak, created when the firm was installing a new meter outside a property in Lea.

They were told initially when we had the Beast from the East, and another couple of times. Consequently, the water froze and damaged a large number of shrubs in my garden.

I can live with that, what I can’t is the fact that the leak was only repaired last week.

Of course I had the benefit of free watering of

my garden, but how long

are we talking of here, months?

Get your act together water companies. We’re doing our part, the question is, are you?

PT

Lea

Parking fee warning

With the children’s holiday season almost upon us, I wish to warn all parents regarding the dropping off at the Odeon Cinema, Preston.

I dropped my handicapped son off on Monday, July 9. I did not park in a parking spot but in the small lay-by just in front on the cinema. After paying and seating my son, I left after a few minutes. Imagine my shock at receiving a parking fine for £60! I appealed to the parking company but to no avail as they do not allow any parking, stopping or even driving down the lane in front of the cinema. I wish to warn parents so they too do not fall into the trap. £60 is an awful lot of money and it rises to £100 if not pay within 14 days.

It is equivalent to a one week’s carers allowance I receive for my son, so you can see why I am so upset by this.

Marilyn Rhodes

Great Eccleston