Even more people will visit if city is cleaner!
JONATHAN Schofield (£670m
tourism boom, M.E.N. July 25) is being generous when he says that we could look after the streets better!
Manchester remains one of the filthiest cities of the western world.
Litter was top of the list of dislikes in Marketing Manchester’s survey of business delegates. Think how much more we would earn in tourism if we kept our home clean! Terry Dean
Art of getting potholes filled
THREE years ago you reported on graffiti by an artist who rather vulgarly drew attention to potholes by using his spray can around Bury and Ramsbottom.
This resulted in the powers that be pulling their fingers out and filling the holes.
Manchester council has a system on its website for reporting these problems, but logging and analysing data doesn’t necessarily get things done – ask any cyclist who choses between the risks of coming off or being run over as they swerve to avoid disaster.
A recent downpour resulted in my getting soaked by a passing bus hitting a megapuddle caused by silted up drains on the A6. As we approach leaf fall we can expect this to get worse. Perhaps we need the ‘comedy phallus crusader’ to redevelop Manchester’s innovative street arts scene. ‘Manchester Cyclist’
Speedway deserves cash
I CANNOT possibly understand why town hall bosses have been slammed for ‘sinking’ another £85,000 into our Belle Vue National Speedway Stadium.
Speedway in Manchester has been an enjoyable tradition and a well-supported family sport for around 80 years producing world champions and tourism benefits all bringing money into the city.
However, I would ask the council to display the amounts of money granted/funded by them to other organisations whose staff abuse that money for their own gain and not the people it was intended for, such as the Oxfam crisis. John Bottomley, Clayton
THIS Saturday 6pm at Belle Vue speedway – it’s the Aces’ 90th birthday and for £5 per adult and children free it is the summer speedway event, featuring the fifth round of the British youth championship. Now that’s got to be value for money. IHW, Fails worth
We must leave the EU
JOHN Major, the ex-Conservative prime minister, and others claim that it is the national interest to hold a second referendum on our membership of the European Union.
Of all the arguments in favour of a second referendum this is the most absurd.
The whole point of the European Union is to dissolve our national interest in favour of the European Commission’s interests.
If we stay in the European Union or adopt Theresa May’s appalling Chequers policy we will have our laws made by other countries and be subject to a foreign court, the European Court of Justice.
In short it will only be legitimate to talk about our national interest if we are outside the European Union Graham Stringer MP
Fewer police, more crimes
IN the M.E.N. special investigation
(Saturday, July 21) on significant increases in robberies, sex crimes and knife crime, providing further information into the work of the Greater Manchester Police force you give many individual examples of victims complaining about lack of action by the police. And the police response being that with a shortage of resources their work daily had to be prioritised.
The extent of criminal activity has grown in recent years from a base of murders, violent behaviour, thefts, fraud and burglaries, alcohol and driving offences to internet activity, child abuse, drugs and terrorism all of which are undertaken by a reduced police force, 2,000 less over the past seven years and with £180m budget cuts.
Cause and effect are clearly demonstrated and, as a result, a growing population in Greater Manchester find themselves less protected. And with prosecution rates at an all-time low, less than ten per cent, public protection is further jeopardised.
Despite reduced staff resources we learn that 250 officers were sent to provide security for President Trump’s visit, despite over 1,000 people accompanying the President. And at last year’s Conservative Conference the police, drawn from a wide area, were to be seen in large numbers in the city centre protecting the delegates, the effect being that the population of Greater Manchester had reduced protection. Why should the VIPs get such cast -iron protection at the expense of the public?
We are informed that the government considers that the police have the resources they need; on the other hand, the deputy mayor claims that the government fails to fund the police fairly. One is left to discern the truth. Tom Jackson