Readers' letters from Friday 27 Apr 2007

Why my washing blows freely

A  WHILE ago you published letters about washing being dried in a front garden which seemed to be causing some distress.I am the tenant of Clinton Avenue who has been forced to hang her washing in the front garden as I have a marsh for a back garden. I have lived in Clinton Avenue for nearly 17 years and have always kept my house and garden in good repair, I have never been in trouble with the police and am a law-abiding citizen. I was shocked and amazed that my washing has caused such an offence, considering what else goes on in the area – shootings, muggings, drug dealing, car crime and so on.Every winter for the past two years my back garden has flooded thanks to rain and blocked guttering. I cannot go into the garden without wellies and a snorkel! I have had several council surveyors come and look at the back garden – they came again quite recently. They all say that I need extra drainage putting in but that it will be very expensive so they won’t do it. I have even been in touch with my local councillor but this has still not helped. If I could use my back garden I would do, but until the additional drainage is put in I will continue to use my garden in the manner that I have.Considering all that goes on in the world I don’t think having a washing line in the front garden should be too upsetting.

Disgusted, Fallowfield

Thanks to all

(THE M.E.N. reported on a disabled man robbed on a tram. The thief even took his hearing-aid batteries.)  I WOULD like to say thank you to the generous and kind people who have sent cards and letters. I would also like to thank those who have left things for me in the British Heart Foundation shop.There is a happy ending as I am starting a 26-week course with a job placement scheme, leading to an NVQ in Hospitality and Customer Care.I have even had complete strangers get off buses to ask if I am okay. People’s generosity has given me encouragement. I have made new friends and I realise that life can be rewarding. 

Antony Wilson

Tranquillity blighted by aircraft

A WEEK ago on a bright sunny day I arrived at the Knutsford entrance to Tatton Park. It was full of spring promise, with the green blush just beginning to show on the trees by the lakeside and one had for a short time the feeling of getting away from noise, pollution and suburbia!However, this impression was soon shattered by the roar and increasing frequency of aircraft taking off from the airport. Across the 1,000 acres of Tatton, it was impossible to escape or shut out the obscene and pervasive cacophony of noise pollution. The natural and seasonal sounds of nature that I was seeking and trying to tune into were wiped out by this incessant assault on the senses.One reads from time to time the assurances of the airport that better design and technology is making this problem a thing of the past. I have yet to experience this. In fact it is getting worse. There were Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies flitting about if only to remind one that man’s puny efforts to simulate winged creatures only result in a fast deteriorating and intolerable environment and climate change.On reflection not even my wartime experience of the nightly visits of the Luftwaffe were able to shatter the nerves so effectively as the activities of Manchester Airport. And yet the government is encouraging the expansion and addition of more runways and airports. Truly, Albert Schweitzer was more than a prophet when he said ‘Man has lost the capacity to foresee and forestall, he will end by destroying the Earth’, but not before we go mad, I might add!

Terry Perkins, Burnage

A high price

AFTER reading your full-page article on AstraZeneca and the amount of money being allocated by the government to science and technology in the north west and their work in the line of cancer treatment, remind the public that it comes at another price. That is misery and death for the creatures that are used in experiments, particularly small, vulnerable mammals like mice, which are bred with cancer genes deliberately injected in them, and suffer horrifically the pain and distress of the illness and the tumours and mutations as a result of the experiments. Alternatively, there are many research laboratories that do not use animals in experiments and are also doing superb work looking for cures but do not benefit from government money and rely on voluntary contri-butions from the public. Those charities and pioneering research centres can be contacted through any of the organisations that campaign for animal welfare. This week is National Anti-Vivisection Society events week: many people will join in things like Race for Life, so well promoted by the media, thinking only that their money will go to alleviate pain and suffering of cancer sufferers – but in fact it causes pain and suffering to millions of animals in experiments. The government is increasing the number of animals being used in the killing of innocent mammals, with the extra spending it is allocating to places like AstraZeneca. Our society should be ashamed of what it inflicts on other creatures and that it allows it to continue.

A. Booth, Heath Charnock

Help animals

I AM appalled at the treatment of animals. With no state funding, the poor animals cannot speak for themselves. All the begging letters I receive for money for this, that and the other. But the govern-ment should pay for vets and protection societies to help the dumb creatures. It makes me so sad. What about the millionaires out there? Instead of clothes and shoes, if you have a heart, give for these poor souls.

M. Peters, Manchester

Circus welcome

WHAT a welcome sight to see the Bobby Roberts Circus at Belle Vue. In time honoured tradition of the old Belle Vue Circus days, I took my own children to see a thoroughly enjoyable show.Contrary to the animal rights protesters outside, who coincidentally played no small part in seeing off the old Belle Vue Zoo, those wonderfully nurtured animals, could arguably not be in a more safer   environment. Older M.E.N. readers may recall animal acts from Belle Vue Circus, long before animal protesters had anything else better to do.

S. T. Dixon, Longsight

Horsing around

IN sympathy with Dreamer (Postbag, April 25) who mentioned the mess left by mounted police in the city, I wish to record that about two years ago I stopped a mounted policeman at the bottom of Market Street.I complained that while walking from the top of the street I had seen three piles of manure from his and his female colleague’s animals and that pedestrians were having to negotiate their way around them. Some were treading in it and spreading it everywhere. He scowled at me from his great height and said: ‘Do you know what I am doing here? I am ensuring the safety of the people in this town.’ He turned his horse and rode away from me and the animal promptly delivered another pile on Cross Street. His colleague approached and I put the same complaint to her. She treated me in a more intelligent way but said that at present there are no bylaws which enforce the scooping-up of horse manure. Well, I say let’s have these bylaws, and the sooner the better. What the police do on horseback on a quiet morning in the centre of town could be done equally well on foot.

Hopeful, Manchester

Strange world

PEOPLE are sick and tired of seeing teenagers on TV saying when expecting that they were going to have abortions. What should be said is ‘murdering’ an innocent child. Don’t these yobs have a conscience when it comes to murder? What a dreadful world we live in.  

Disgusted, Manchester

Put public transport in public control

WHY is it that a lot of publicity is being given to the possibility of congestion charging while the debate on what other measures could be instituted, is totally ignored? There appears to be unanimous and universal agreement that the bus, train and tram services need to be massively improved and while a return to public ownership, is unlikely in the short term, there is a great need for much more public intervention, control and accountability of these services. That can be done almost instantaneously.If the government is really serious about tackling congestion it would be investigating every possible suggestion as to how it could be reduced, especially those that can be done at very little or no expense, but they aren’t and they won’t. Until they do, I will not support any proposals to introduce congestion charging.

Michael Wyatt, Whitefield

Give young bikers some space

AS a teenager in the 1960s, I owned an old BSA Bantem motorcycle which I would endlessly tinker with and ride on waste land and through the woods, being too young to ride on public roads. I had great enjoyment both mending and riding this converted scramble bike.For this reason I have great sympathy with the young lads of today with their off road bikes.They are constantly demonised by the authorities as arch villains, when all they need is a large piece of private land.Here they would be free to indulge their hobby without annoying anybody else. Is it beyond the wit of local authorities and the police to provide such a facility rather than confiscating and crushing these machines?

K. Fitton, Hyde