Readers' letters - March 28

My name is Joe. I’ve had a season ticket at North End for 20 years and the game against Rovers last week made me ask myself, “why do I love football so much?”

This is why...

As the dust settles after a match... it makes me think about why I love football.

I’m so taken in by it.

Every game I go to, and Rovers away especially, takes me through every emotion.

The pure elation of going in front, to the disappointment of conceding an equaliser, a pure sense of frustration when you see a pass go astray.... then the horrible sinking feeling of the opposition going in front and the anxiety of possibly conceding again.

I get so into it, shouting orders and pointing as if the players can hear and see me!

My body then starts moving with every bounce of the ball, willing for a midfielder to make THAT tackle or for the centre half to win their header.

All the while time is ticking away.

Then the nerves of whether or not my team will have enough in the tank to make use of a chance to give the crowd a lift.

Chance gone!

Any more time for one last go?

Board up.

Stoppage time to go.

I just want that one bit of luck or that little bit of quality to make a difference.

Then it happens....

The pure roar of a last minute goal (equaliser or winner)... that sense of ecstasy... seeing people falling over each other in delight.

Embracing people who you’ve watched your team with for years or someone you’ve never seen before, just letting themselves go in that moment!

That’s why I love football!

Joe

via email

LOCAL BUDGET

Paying more for even less

Preston Conservative councillors have slammed proposed cuts to rural green spaces as a new form of ‘Rural Apartheid’, as new budget proposals target only parish areas.

In the Conservative budget, Coun Damien Moore proposed money from City Deal should be used in order to keep up the maintenance of our green spaces.

The Liberal Democrats, who propped up the Labour administration at County Hall, were party to the budget being cut, resulting in our grass verges not being maintained properly.

Do we want more of this?

At the last Preston City Council meeting, it was announced by the Labour administration that a saving of £50,000 has to be made from the parks budget in parish areas only, an average reduction of 55 per cent.

This affects grass cutting, play areas (which need a weekly safety inspection), tree pruning, litter and dog waste bins.

If play areas are not maintained to the health and safety standard required they will close.

The options offered were: Transfer the ownership to parish councils, involving legal costs of thousands of pounds.

This involves insurance and maintenance, if play areas are not maintained then the equipment will be removed at a COST.

The burden on parish councils would be great and expertise would be needed resulting in the parishes ‘buying in’ specialist services.

Cottam already pays the highest average rate of council tax in the city.

With the added brown bin tax for the removal of garden waste, the transfer of highway maintenance to Lancashire County Council, and now this – residents of Cottam are being asked to pay twice as much for even less.

The second option is to put the parish precept up and contribute to the work via Preston City Council and agree a specification for the work.

Is this fair on volunteers who are members of our parish council?

We’ve just seen the adoption by the council of Cottam Hall Park, which, when built, will see circa £100,000 go toward the council for maintenance. Is the Labour Party now proposing to take that sum and spend it elsewhere?

There is a possibility that it would actually cost more to implement this action than the amount money it would save, it appears to be politically motivated.

The parks in Labour areas are not subject to this amount of cuts.

Our residents and children are entitled to have play areas and green spaces just as much as those in the inner areas of Preston.

The rural areas already contribute a great deal in council tax and receive the least benefit from it.

Do you think this a ‘level playing field’ or discrimination against our parish areas?

We have already met with Lea and Cottam Parish Council and have arranged a future meeting to discuss the options and what is best for our area.

Coun Christine Abram

Coun Trevor Hart

Coun Daniel Dewhurst

Coun Damien Moore (Deputy Leader)

via email

brexit

Gullible voters brainwashed

Re: the article about a sharp swing to remain from leave after the EU referendum.

The headline in the Lancashire Post immediately gave me the impression that those leave voters, who have swung to remain since the referendum, have been gullible and brainwashed by stubborn remainers fighting the result of the referendum (EU-Turn, Three-quarters now say they want UK to remain, LP March 14).

They have had ‘remaining in the European Union’ repeatedly drummed into them.

They have been misled and have fallen for the con yet again.

The ‘remainiacs’ use Brexit as a scapegoat for the decline in the value of the pound and for inflation speeding up.

What really is to blame for this economic instability is uncertainty about Brexit being for real, which is caused by the delaying strategy of those crybaby hardline remainers.

That brings back memories of critics of plastic football pitches blaming the pitch for a bad away result to try and get plastic pitches banned.

R N Coupe

Lostock Hall

energy

Facts prove

the opposite

I am amazed at Helen Rimmer’s statement that Lancashire folk “don’t want fracking” (LP Letters, March 25).

I am born and bred in the county and can state I, for one, welcome fracking.

If her statement is correct, why aren’t the majority of the county out protesting against the technology?

I have taken the time to read up both sides of the argument.

Having done so, I am not inclined to side with the Friends of the Earth argument.

So Ms Rimmer, please refain from saying Lancashire residents “don’t want fracking”. You may wish this to be true but facts prove the opposite.

Jacqueline Taylor

Preston