After 15 minutes I was leaving! Why can they not reduce the minimum to one hour or under?
I have two further appointments this week so will have spent £4.50 on parking which I feel is excessive.
I understand that this is a means of
revenue, but Clifton hospital for example is 50p for one hour, not extortionate and a much more appropriate time allocation.
Beverley Watson
Address supplied

* COULD anyone at Blackpool Victoria
Hospital please tell the local residents if they have any plans to improve parking for both staff and visitors?
It is my opinion that the recent plans to
introduce a local residents' parking scheme, that would require paying for by the
residents, are as a result of insufficient
parking being provided by the hospital for staff.
I do appreciate that there have been several great improvements at the hospital in recent years and the hospital needs to expand, but it is very clear that staff are having to park on North Park Drive, Newton Drive, Torsway,
Ingleway and Deneway.
If the hospital do not act to rectify this problem, I feel that Blackpool Council should force it to take responsibility for providing
parking for its staff.
Martin Craven
Layton

Clamp down on drivers using Promenade
In response to the letters about fishermen parking on the lower walk (The Gazette, October 16)
The fishermen park quite
openly on the Prom at Little
Bispham and no one moves them on.
Two Sundays ago I had my first walk up to my local beach in two years. My recent heart bypass helped me to do this.
Arriving at Little Bispham, I felt pleased at my walk until I saw parked actually on the grass on the clifftop, right alongside the cycle path, a 4x4 Land Rover!
Then as I sat on the nearby seats overlooking the middle and lower walks, two red cars, on the restricted area.
One had tried to hide his car near to the path to the beach itself, and the other was alongside near the sign saying 'Only
Authorised Vehicles'! Next to the cycle path.
The road was fenced off, so how did they get on to the prom?
I sat there two hours and watched these fishermen.
Then a white van came along this same fenced off road, from Cleveleys and I saw him approach the blocked off exit to Queens Promenade. What did he do?
He drove onto the pavement and forced his way through.
Unless someone patrols this area, they will carry on. The fishermen are too idle to leave their cars on the road to walk a couple of yards. By the way, the grass on the clifftop was churned up as if a lot of vehicles had parked there.
Locals or visitors, this is
abusing our beach!
Name and address supplied

A sad brawl
I was sad to read that up to 200 pupils from the Collegiate and Beacon Hill High Schools had been in a large brawl (The Gazette, October18). The high standards once observed by the Claremont Schools, Blackpool Grammar School and Collegiate have gone by the board. A teaching acquaintance who retired seven years ago confided his school was in "disciplinary collapse". His view was that by 2010 other Blackpool schools might well follow suit. He could be proved right.
Ian Jackson
Park Road, Blackpool

Families of war dead call
Members of Poulton United Reformed Church plan to
re-dedicate a newly refurbished War Memorial to those members of the church that gave their lives in the Great War.
I would like to hear from any of the family of those listed on the plaque: J Ashworth, HH
Balderstone, L Bowman, M Greenwood, A Raby, A Roberts and W Roskill.
The plaque, refurbished with help from the War Memorials Trust, also names 31 men of the church who served in the Great War.
The re-dedication is to take place on Saturday November 8 at 10.30am and I can be contacted on (01253) 892607.
Rev Duncan Tuck
Poulton United Reform Church
Condemnation of Labour U-turn
The great economist John
Maynard Keynes once said in the 1930s that the main problem with Labour was that it had no
principles.
Events of the past few days amply support his statement.
Firstly, we now know that the banking bail-out was not the much vaunted master-plan of our beleaguered Prime Minister but was a plan devised by the Chancellor and his economic
advisers.
Incidentally, I would expect any economist worthy of the name to have come up with a similar plan.
Secondly, the recent
announcement on immigration policy by the newly appointed Immigration Minister, is
breathtaking in its cynical
opportunism.
It has been stated immigration must be curtailed, and employers when recruiting should give
preference to white workers because in a time of recession to do otherwise might "cause racial tension".
So at one fell swoop a coach and horses has been driven through Labour's long-standing policy on immigration.
In so doing all those who for years have been saying the same thing and been vilified by Labour for doing so have been vindicated.
No longer can the Left pour scorn on those political parties who have also repeatedly warned of the serious dangers to this country's values and culture of uncontrolled immigration. For to do so would be shooting themselves in the foot. This massive u-turn by Labour has come about because they are on the run and fear defeat in the next general election.
Dr Barry Clayton
Fieldfare Close, Cleveleys