Readers' letters - September 28

It must be an honour, and rightly so, for the new Broughton Bypass to be called James Towers Way, after a local war hero from Broughton.

However, I’m sure he must be turning in his grave at the prospect of his village being desecrated by 17,000 new homes and developments in the  vicinity.

I only hope there are enough other war heroes from the village to name all the other roads that will surely be required in order to cope with all the extra traffic this development will generate– and for which the new James Towers Way will soon be inadequate to deal with.

How will the road lessen traffic through Broughton village as some vehicles must pass through to go anywhere?

How will you differentiate those living in the villages from those who will always try it on to go where they are not meant to?

Are you, parish councillors, going to stand on every corner shooing the traffic away?

I think all the road will achieve is to push the traffic problem on to the hamlets and villages north, east and west of Broughton, with ever more developments making these lovely villages simply a huge conurbation of Preston instead of the green and picturesque breathing spaces they once were.

Christine Cross

via email

nostalgia

Dad built replica for Queen’s visit

My dad was employed by British Rail. He was a carpenter in the Plant and Machinery Department, on Butler Street, Preston.

He was commissioned to build a replica of the Class 86. It was the mainstay of the West Coast Express services which travelled between London Euston and Glasgow Central, during the 1970s.

The replica blue engine was accompanied by two regal crowns (see Looking Back photo). This was part of the official welcome for HM Queen Elizabeth II to Preston, when she unveiled a plaque signifying the completion of the full electrification of the 400-mile long West Coast Main Line between London and Glasgow.

The significance of Preston being chosen for the commemoration was that the town of Preston is, approximately, 200 miles/half-way from each city centre.

The plaque can be viewed, today, on Platform Four. (see Looking Back photo).

The wooden scale model of the iconic (Class-86, Crewe built) engine was affectionately named by local enthusiasts as ‘cardboard cop’!

Incidentally, a ‘cop’, in rail fans’ parlance, was a ‘never before seen engine’!

What happened to the model? Hopefully not used for firewood! Maybe lying in one of the cellars at the station, who knows?

Wilf Riley

via email

brexit

Leave this sinking ship

Sometimes I cannot believe what I hear and see through the media regarding Brexit.

Britannia rules the waves? I doubt it.

At the present time it would be struggling to rule a child’s paddling pool.

Twelve months ago I voted to leave this overpriced trading bloc known as the European Union (EU).

Twelve months on and my opinion hasn’t changed in the slightest but unfortunately we are still a member and possibly until 2019 or beyond.

If it wasn’t for our intervention in 1939 there would be no Europe – well, not as we know it today. German could well have been the fluent language. Fast forward 80 years and we have this sinking ship known as the EU.

My free advice is to get out now before it drags us down with it to Davy Jones’s Locker.

This great country of ours has a history we should all be proud of and, if we play our cards right, a prosperous future lying ahead, but first of all we must leave the EU.

The world is our oyster but first we must crack on and divorce this overpriced bureaucratic mess known as the EU (Economic Uncertainty). I really don’t know what is so difficult understanding the words ‘out’ and ‘leave’.

They both have pretty much the same meaning. Leave means leave and out means out.

Barry Carr

Fleetwood

BREXIT

Leaving the EU gravy train

The only reason MPs are complaining and trying to block anything to do with Brexit is that they can see the EU gravy train leaving the station, knowing they will never have a seat on it.

I do not recall any Labour MPs complaining when Tony Blair signed the European Constitution in 2004, handing power over British policy to Brussels bureaucrats.

He never asked the British people if it was okay.

Judy Goodwin

via

parking

Don’t be so inconsiderate

Re: Parking on pavements. We also have a problem around St Thomas Road, near Moor Park, Preston

(LP September 26). Residents park cars on pavements near Moor Park High School down to the tennis courts.

On Saturday and Sunday, I had to walk in the road. Anyone who has a pram or wheelchair has no chance of using the pavement. Parking on pavements is inconsiderate and traffic wardens need to give parking tickets.

Maybe they would think twice next time. It has also got really bad when PNE are playing and drivers park on pavements in our residential area. I’m sure they wouldn’t like it if we did that in the front of their house.

Lady Resident

Moor Park Area