Readers' letters - March 29

Bus service not fit for a city
Prestons bus service is not fit for a city says a reader. See main letterPrestons bus service is not fit for a city says a reader. See main letter
Prestons bus service is not fit for a city says a reader. See main letter

You call this a city bus service?

Referring to D A Hunter’s letter regarding the 88 bus (LEP March 22), I live in the Ingol/Tanterton area and have seen the new route of the original 88A and 88C (otherwise known as the Orbital service), which has been cut up in bits, now leaves us with no direct bus to any of the major supermarkets.

Originally, this service, which replaced the 32, was heralded as a vast improvement for those living in the more rural areas of Preston. Apart from the fact that we had no Orbital service on a Sunday (so much for getting to the hospital), the service seemed to work very well.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Now in order for us to get to a supermarket, for instance Sainsbury’s, Morrisons or Asda, on the new route, we shall have to get two buses each way.

Is that a positive move for pensioners, disabled and non-drivers?

That was also our bus for getting to and from the railway station, the cinema and elsewhere outside of Cottam.

This is treating its customers as if they are from a group of inconvenient villages, rather than a city.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The reason, we are informed from the ‘How your City Network bus services change from April 4, 2016’, is due to chronic traffic congestion.

Yes, that would be mainly because people cannot get parked at the hospital near visiting times, when you can be waiting up to 30 minutes to get through the traffic because the traffic light system is inefficient and the waiting cars are clogging up the street.

But I have never experienced bottle necks en route to Morrisons (when the bus went on the anti-clockwise route).

So why can’t the bus run from the bus station to the hospital?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

That would make sense instead of just jaunting to and from Cottam.

And this leads me nicely on to the LEP’s front page article, City in a Jam (LEP March 23).

Well it doesn’t take the brains of Einstein to work out that if we have an apology for a bus service, we not exactly encouraging people to leap out of their cars and make use of our inadequate service, are we?

This is not a city bus service, but an apology for one.

S. Jardine, Ingol

Gap between rich and poor

For some time, it has been apparent that the highest echelons of politics and the national media are living lives totally detached from the experiences of ordinary mortals.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This was brought home to me the other week when a report in a ‘quality’ broadsheet featured a comment from someone at a financial services institute who said young people need to be saving £800 every month towards their pension in order to generate a retirement income of £30,000 per annum.

Given the low-wage economy now engulfing large swathes of the populace, the very idea that a young person could place a sum of money of this magnitude away on a regular basis for their retirement is beyond preposterous.

Yet the story is telling for what it reveals about our divided nation. The gap between members of a privileged, protected and self-serving metropolitan elite and ordinary folk in the provinces is now reaching epic proportions. While one must always retain hope for the future, the views emanating from the national commentariat make me fearful of the direction in which the country is headed.

Kevin Hey via email

Gender equality in Grand Slams

Surely, in the age of pay and gender equality in sport, women’s tennis matches should be decided by the best of five sets in Grand Slam tournaments rather than three?

Andrew Mercer, address supplied

Address supplied

A40s were nice cars to drive

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Re: A40s remembered. Looking Back showed a picture of proud owner Alan Willacy standing by his new Austin A40 (LEP February 29).

Alan’s car carries the old Preston borough registration PRN 519, and the year would be 1961.

Older Prestonians would remember the E­Jay School of Motoring, based in Cannon Street. E­Jay, in the mid­ 1960s, had about six Austin A40s.

They were a very nice car to drive, with excellent all­-round vision. In 1967, I myself enrolled with E­Jay for driving lessons. They had several instructors, and you would not always get the same one each lesson.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Back then, lessons cost £1.2s 6d (£1.12) per hour, and the driving test was £1. On the actual driving test, the driving examiner would ask you to drive using hand signals (not much fun in winter or rain with the window open).

After a while, you would be told to use the indicators.

On completing the actual driving course, you would be asked several questions on the Highway Code.

Back to the A40s, as with all cars, each passing year of production would bring in many improvements. The A40s enjoyed a production run of nine years, between 1958 and 1967.

Errol H. Simister, Bamber Bridge

Looking for a lady called Irene

I am trying to locate a lady who lived opposite me when we were children. She married a man, who I think was called Proctor, and went to live in the Bamber Bridge area.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Our address when we were children was 84 Cemetery Road, in the Ribbleton area of Preston, and at the time she was called Irene Seed. My brother’s name was Gerard and mine is Frank.

The reason for attempting to contact her is that, following the death of my brother, some papers have come into my possession.

One of which is a photograph of Irene and my brother, and I am trying to forward it to her. I am now 89, so the lady will be a similar age if she is still around. The only other thing I remember is that she was a seamstress for a shop called Speights in Friargate many years ago.

Frank, Leicester

If anyone can help Frank, please call the LEP on 01772 554537 or email [email protected] and we will forward your details on.

Related topics: