Seaside village now run-down

HAVING received the latest information from Mayor Norma Redfearn, in which she is asking the population for their views, I would like to make my views known via your newspaper.

There is much being said about Wallsend, the Dome at Whitley Bay and the coast, but not what part of the coast.

I am particularly concerned about Tynemouth, which never gets a mention. It used to be such an attractive place but now looks so run-down and shabby. What has happened to the lovely flower baskets everywhere?

In spite of our mayor’s assurances in her leaflet that she is committed as a “listening” mayor focusing on the things that people have told her about, such as clean streets, roads and pavements, Tynemouth has become a dirty-looking place, with cracked and broken pavements, covered in horrible chewing gum, cigarette ends lodged in the cracks, which never move for weeks on end, dog mess, vomit, discarded food cartons etc.

On top of this, there are the awful “enclosures” of shop fronts, covered in adverts and terrible plastic plants, and pavements blocked by A-boards which, if you are in a wheelchair like myself, are difficult to get past, especially if they are chained to a lamppost.

Besides this, has anyone noticed that there is drab grey paint everywhere, on nearly every building? Seaside villages used to be inviting, bright and cheerful places with pastel colours on the top part of buildings.

I am therefore asking our