Roads shut down: is it really ‘new normal’?
HOW disappointing to read your article (M.E.N., May 18) about further ‘temporary pedestrianisation’ along part of Deansgate in Manchester... and how galling to see Coun Angeliki Stogia smiling gleefully on the same page.
Does this council not realise Manchester city centre is fighting for its life?
Eight years ago my sister visited Manchester by car to purchase some items from a high class crockery shop on King Street only to receive a penalty for a small transgression into a bus lane... she has never been back since.
That shop closed years ago... have you been to King Street recently? More than half the shops boarded up! M&S is fighting for its life on Market Street; Debenhams and House of Fraser surely soon to close.
Passing through Manchester on public transport recently (I am a key worker) it is so sad to see this great city of ours reduced to this. No traffic, nothing open, and no people! Paradise as far as Manchester council is concerned!
I dread to think what the ‘new normal’ will look like for our great city after the pandemic! However, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining...
So I put Manchester City councillors on notice now... your concern for social distancing is touching ... your anti-car agenda obvious. So please announce now that Manchester Christmas Markets 2020 are cancelled!
Stephen Crewe, Salford
Both hit by symptoms
IT as been confirmed that loss of taste and smell is a symptom of the virus which the wife and I have both had.
I could not smell a pot of Vicks or taste anything. Also another symptom is a metallic taste in your mouth – it’s like having a twopence in your mouth. We’re both OK now. Bert Morrell, Gorton
Coalition is the answer
IT’S rare for an English political party in power to form a coalition goverment, but I think the current situation warrants one.
In my opinion the Tories should (if it’s not too late) offer the other parties a chance to form a coalition government as there was in WWII for the duration of the national crisis. We’d have the brains from each party making joint decisions with Boris Johnson still in charge.
This however would be a nightmare for the media. BBC and ITV, to name two TV channels, would have to cut their half-hour news bulletins at 6 and 10pm down to ten minutes. The 20 minutes allocated for the obligatory finding fault, picking holes and interviewing anyone who has a gripe against the government would have to go – ten minutes left.
Laura Doomsberg BBC (yes, you know who I mean) and Robert Peston ITV could find themselves out of work. How could they ask a stupid, ridiculously loaded question to a coalition minister (even they can’t ridicule every party... can they?!)
The TV media couldn’t be as ultra-negative with a coalition government, they would have to accept that the decisions made are correct for the good of the country.
In the meantime here’s a question worthy of our top political correspondents: Prime Minister, why didn’t you put the UK in full lockdown in early January after a person phoned in sick in Wuhan, China saying they had a persistent cough and a high temperature?
R Davies, Stockport
Why is work dragging on?
AFTER enduring the roadwork at Chester Road roundabout for over a year, we residents on and around Chorlton Road now have to deal with the cycle lane upgrade.
Why is it dragging on for so long? Why have so many restrictive cones and fences been placed and erected? Why not start a section, finish it, then reopen it instead of closing more road and footpath, then leaving it?
Why is there no safe pedestrian footpath past it? Why is there only six workmen on this project? Why do the workforce go home at 3pm, leaving the traffic restrictions in place overnight?
#work more, reduce pollution, save lives.
Mike Gleeson, via email