Readers' letters - May 2

Recently I was at one of the country’s top music venues to see more than 80 performers of the highest calibre, led by an internationally-acclaimed maestro, in two world-famous English masterpieces and a brand new work that premiered just the night before.

Yet the place appeared only a little over half full.

What went wrong?

There were young people there, and even the littlest showed rapt attention, but they were a small minority.

Music like this can be enjoyed by everyone, and for little cost.

The arts are much less a part of any young person’s experience than they were in the past.

We are not making the audiences and creators of the future.

Education in the arts is falling by the wayside.

House of Commons Library research, (quoted in The Observer), shows that the number of art, music and drama teachers has fallen by 3,500 since 2010, with 38,000 fewer hours taught.

The new Arts Council head Nicholas Serota has said: “Too many pupils lack access to high-quality cultural education and too few universities ask applicants to show that 
they have an appetite for the arts and the broader humanities.”

In the coming election, only the candidate that promises to reverse decades of decline and invest in arts education deserves your vote.

Robin Hughes

Address supplied

fishergate

I still haven’t got my answer

Following the recent publicity regarding the number of motorists being fined after the introduction of the latest restrictions on Fishergate in Preston, I wrote to LCC Highways department for advice on driving in Preston as follows:

“I wish to drive from Chorley to Fox Street in Preston city centre.

“I am disabled and simply need to pick up an item of jewellery which is being repaired.

“With the new road restrictions, how do I get there?

“I have searched but have been unable to find the information I require.

“Please be good enough to forward this to whichever department should be able to help.”

The response received was as follows:

“Hello, thank you for your enquiry.

“We don’t have a service where we give information for directions to get from one place to another.”

This was followed by a statement asking me to remember to vote on May 4.

You can guess who I will not be voting for!

Should this be filed under the title, “You couldn’t make it up?”

Graham Archer

Chorley

environment

Have pride in your local area

A couple of years ago, I went on holiday in Ireland and saw a litter-free rural area in and around Co Monaghan.

I was still met by a litter-free environment this year when I returned to Ireland.

There were no cigarette ends, drinks cans or bottles.

There were no plastic carrier bags – which are illegal in Ireland – and no graffiti sprayed anywhere.

I’ve seen a villager in Glaslough come out of their cottage and shout a holidaymaker back to pick up a till receipt that was accidentally dropped, which they did.

I have to ask myself why is it that the Irish have pride in their litter-free country and here people have no respect for the areas where they live or the countryside, where illegal fly tippers operate without fear of being caught?

Here where I live, rubbish is dumped on a daily basis.

If the Irish can keep a litter-free country, why can’t we?

I’m afraid if I had the power, I would imprison the perpetrators, no matter who they are, and give a £1,000 fine.

How people can just dump rubbish on someone else’s doorstep is beyond

me.

The Green Giant

via email

retail

We need some big name shops

I’ve just been working in Bury and what an eye-opener – the shopping centre there is fantastic with just about every big name shop you can think of. It’s modern and busy.

Then I come home to Morecambe – our shopping centre is terrible.

What big name shops have we here?

Yes, the council is tidying up the centre, but we have no shops.

We’ve got a sorry excuse of a shopping centre called the Arndale which seems to get fewer shops every month.

The council needs to attract big name shops to our town.

The Fronterland site could be turned into a shopping mecca.

We have the bypass now so getting to Morecambe is easy.

This is a wonderful town with spectacular views.

We just need some big name stores to attract people to come shopping, helping the whole local economy.

C Pennington

Address supplied

ENERGY

How does this make sense?

The declared intent of Cuadrilla is to create ‘Fracking Central’ in the farming and tourism peninsula of the Fylde. These are some of the numbers involved.

n Cuadrilla intend to build over 80 ‘super-sized’ drilling pads, each with 40 or more wells.

This will fill the ground beneath our country and homes with over 7,000 miles of tunnels containing toxic laden fluids and fumes.

n Over 50,000 Wembley Stadiums full of toxic gases will be released into our local fresh air, damaging our health and grazing lands beyond repair for generations to come.

n In excess of one million HGV movements through our road network and beyond – not sure where, by the way – will occur to transport toxic sludge away for decontamination, if that is possible at all.

n The well pads are allowed up to 500 metres from your residential housing.

The fracking tunnels obviously will extend under housing estates and commercial properties.

Check your property insurance terms.

The numerous seismic events which inevitably occur are unlikely to be covered and the Government have absolved themselves of liability.’

How does this make any sense and stands to profit?

Peter Roberts

Warton