Few can have read The Gazette's recent
reports on youth crime without feeling a deep sense of despair.
Despite headlines telling us crime is falling, we no longer know what to make of crime statistics. People have told me they don't bother to report minor crimes because they don't think the police will be interested.
The extent of unreported crime is
unknown. It is no wonder fear of crime is
increasing.
We have a Government which likes to talk tough on crime, but the reality never
matches up.
If you are going to talk about tough
punishments, then those punishments need to be applied.
All too often, Labour gives the
impression an offence deserves a custodial sentence, but the reality is a string of
cautions.
Figures from Lancashire police
demonstrate this.
Lancashire Constabulary has the ability to issue fixed penalty notices for drunken
behaviour in public. Yet in 2007, it issued only 33 of them across the county.
I have no doubt that on a summer Saturday night in Blackpool town centre, 10 times that number could be issued easily.
And given the focus on youth crime, I find it almost impossible to believe the statistic which shows only one person in the whole of
Lancashire in 2007 was fined for trying to buy alcohol on behalf of a minor at licensed premises.
I hear countless examples told to me by local residents every week.
If we have penalties – and it is a shame some of them are not stronger – let us at least apply them.
Equally, we should never overlook the fact that the troublemakers are but a tiny
majority of young people. The vast majority are conscientious, hard-working and law abiding. It is a tragedy that they are all tarred with the same brush.
Paul Maynard
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate
Blackpool North and Cleveleys



Animal sanctuaries are facing tough times
The front page article about Easterleigh (The Gazette, August 9) highlights some of the
problems facing all the animal
rescues in the Blackpool area.
We are all experiencing fewer people adopting animals. This is unfortunately not matched by the amount of phone calls we get from people wanting us to help with stray, abandoned and
unwanted animals.
At Cats Paws Sanctuary, we are receiving dozens of calls every week asking us to take in
unwanted cats and kittens. The problem is compounded by
owners who do not neuter their cats. A mature female cat can produce a litter of kittens in nine weeks and can become pregnant again within weeks of giving birth. Not only does this cause a problem with unwanted kittens, but we are experiencing an
increase in the number of cats who test positive for Feline Leukaemia Virus (FeLV) and
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus(FIV).
I'm sure if owners realised that their cat is at risk of contracting either of these awful diseases through mating and fighting they would think twice before letting an un-neutered cat out.
At present we have 30 adult cats and almost 60 kittens at the sanctuary.
They are all now waiting for new, loving homes. There is help in the Fylde area for anyone wanting to get their cat neutered, and we can give information about this to anyone who calls.
Nicky Arton
Cats Paws


Amazed
Politicians never fail to amaze me.
David Cameron goes all the way to Georgia to show support to the people, stating that freedom, independence, and the right to govern
themselves is priceless, and is the right of all freedom loving people.
Does he not realise that millions of his fellow
country men only want the same thing?
Tom Roberts
Blackpool


Example of a well run town
Having just returned from a lovely week in Great Yarmouth I felt I must write this letter.
The Promenade is immaculate, there is no litter, no overflowing bins, no yobbish louts, no
beggars on street corners.
There are street cleaners
working all the time making sure their town is one to be proud of.
I also must praise their
parking attendants. We were 20 minutes late back to the car and
didn't have a fine slapped on our windscreen.
Maybe our councillors should have a couple of weeks down there and see how it should be done and maybe then Blackpool would be as busy as Great Yarmouth and a town to be proud of again.
Simon Marshall
Rossington Avenue
Blackpool

Pay for pool not consultants
Back in June The Gazette
printed a report about the £250,000 consultation costs, paid to Turner Townsend, for the £5m town hall revamp project (The Gazette, June 13) .
Coun John Coombes claimed this would not cost council
taxpayers a penny because the cost of the revamp, including the consultation, would be met by the sale of other council-owned sites.
Surely, however, this argument does not hold water. If the
council has already had to pay Turner Townsend for their work and revenue from the site sales is not going to be available until next year, then this year's budget has been raided to pay for the town hall consultation.
This is money that could, and should, have been used to keep St Annes swimming pool open for another year. The council is not "cash-strapped" – it merely chooses to give its cash to
consultants, rather than meet the needs of local children and the disabled (the Fylde Otters) by keeping St Annes' pool open.
Sally Wainman
Founder of Pooling Resources (Yahoo Forum)
St Annes

Market was a total letdown
I travelled by tram recently especially to see Blackpool's continental market.
What a disappointment. One stall with cakes, one selling scarfs, one selling flowers which were on sale in lots of shops in Blackpool. I feel very, very let down by all of this.
May Hodgson
Westbourne Road, Cleveleys