Readers' letters - April 3

A shame your article about the new Ikea being built at Cuerden didn’t feature any comments from residents who have been fighting it since day one (Ikea is taking shape, LP March 30).South Ribble councillors have let down their constituents by failing to take their concerns into account. Traffic will be awful. Roads around Lostock Hall and Bamber Bridge are already congested, but wait until thousands of drivers are heading for the flatpack and meatballs. Any mitigating highways ‘improvements’ will have little impact. Apparently ‘tree protection’ work has been carried out on site – seemingly the best way to protect them was to rip them out of the ground and turn them into woodchip. This development in South Ribble – not Preston as stated – will turn an area once named the best place to live in the country into a polluted, overdeveloped, gridlocked, no-go zone.John Jones Limit Cuerden

languageAtrocious grammarHaving read M Whitehead’s letter recently (LP Letters, March 20), I would have expected an avalanche of replies on this subject but nothing happened until Mrs Wren replied on March 29. It begs the question, are pupils actually taught English in schools anymore or have the teachers given up trying?How do they mark exam papers these days when grammar, punctuation and spelling are atrocious? We, as a nation, are progressively going backwards at an alarming rate and there is no evidence to suggest that the problem is being addressed at grassroots level.I would appreciate a teacher’s point of view on this subject because if I were an English teacher, I would be pulling my hair out, assuming I had any left that is!English is a universal language taught all over the world and it is time we set an example by including all the 26 letters of the alphabet as originally intended.Mike HardmanNew Longtoncity centreTaking creditI have just received a Preston Rose leaflet, and was amazed how Labour councillors appear to be taking credit for the refurbishment and improvements to the Guild Hall and bus station. The council had these properties from new and did nothing but neglect them and let them end up in a state of disrepair. If it had not been for Simon Rigby, there probably would never have been investment. Why has it taken someone like Mr Rigby to take the bull by the horns for these improvements to take place?The council has no right to take credit for this work.Also I live quite close to New Hall Lane and travel down there quite often. In some places, it doesn’t even look finished.There are buses, with no bays, pulling up in the middle of the road, and there are now more accidents/ incidents than before. I have hardly ever heard anybody praising the new look, and they want credit for all this? I don’t think so. Name and address supplied

travelTraffic a priorityLike many people, I suspect, I stayed at home over the Easter break – not because I wanted to, particularly, but because I was put off by the prospect of spending hours in a car, stuck in jams on the motorways. The number of cars on our roads – together with the awful public transport over bank holidays – means a staycation is forced upon us.If they want us to get out and spend our money, the powers-that-be have to make transport a priority.Phil Laurencevia emailcity centreUnsightly sight at BHS buildingI paid my usual monthly visit to Preston this week. Fishergate has not improved. What happened to the people employed to move all the doorway beggars etc?The British Home Stores doorway even had tents up and bodies lying in sleeping bags! Maybe barriers could be erected by the owners of the BHS building to stop this unsightly sight?There is a lot of money being invested in improving Preston –The Market Quarter, Guild Hall, bus station and so on – but I’m ashamed to be a Prestonian.Confused.com