Readers' letters from Tuesday 30 Oct 2007

Piccadilly wall riddle

IF I had 5p for every visitor to the city who I have heard asking what on earth the concrete wall blocking out the view of  Piccadilly gardens and fountain is, then I would be a wealthy man.Now that the old Plaza is being renovated, would it be too much to expect something to be done to cheer up this monstrosity? I realise that it cannot be demolished, but surely it could be brightened up, even if it was with some fake trees, as at The Trafford Centre, or even plastic posters showing points of interest in the city, or pictures of historical events? I have been to other cities who have let graffiti artists practise their art, some of which can be very good. Carlisle, for instance, has murals of Roman soldiers marching on the walls of the pedestrian underpasses, all beautifully done and interestingly enough no one has over written ‘Doris loves Harold’ or the like over them.At the far end of Aytoun Street, on the approach to the new pedestrian bridge which links to Piccadilly railway station, there is a lovely tiled wall with a cascade of water running down it which is very calming and pleasant to see. Could a water feature not be considered for the Piccadilly wall? Some people may think there is already a part-time water feature there when the public urinals are put in place for the glory of both natives and visitors to see.

Michael F. Barlow, Newton Heath

Punk? What about jazz?

THE many comments being made about the Manchester music scene being  dead until the arrival of punk are not quite true.I am now in my mid-seventies, starting my music career in 1948. Whilst Tony Wilson was running the Hacienda Club empty until he introduced an open door policy and cheap drinks, I was playing to a packed Bier Kellar with a strict door policy and the most expensive drinks in the town, which was successful for over 25 years.I had a trio at the Cromford Club where you had to be related to God before they would let you in. It only closed because of the Arndale Centre. I never met Tony Wilson, but he comes across to me as a charming, well-educated chancer.  I think he saw how  Brian Epstein took four lads who were playing very basic three-chord music, gave them a silly name, put them in the hands of a talented record producer and became a millionaire. He appears to have done the same, using Manchester lads who  used only two chords, had sillier names and a talented record producer. The rest is history.Most of the workingmen’s clubs had excellent trios and duos who knew all the chords and played complicated arrangements for top stars on sight, besides being jazz musicians in their own right.Good luck to the Wilson family but a Freeman of the City is going a bit too far. I think I could make a better case for Bernard Manning.

John Coleclough, Manchester

No problems at airport

I WAS sorry to read about the problems experienced by Brian Seddon on his recent flight from Portugal.Whilst I would not seek to pretend that similar situations never happen, I don’t think it is a common occurrence. I visit and work at Manchester Airport regularly and also fly in and out approximately four times a year using all three terminals and I quite honestly have never met with any difficulties, either with baggage, check-in, security or immigration.Perhaps I am just lucky, perhaps Mr Seddon was just unlucky. Either way my true feeling is that there is room for improvement but the   airport does handle its 22 million passengers each year with more than a reasonable amount of success.

J. Kelly, Heald Green

Titbits for north west

HOW predictable that on the day after our southern-based government announced it would spend billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on the London Crossrail service, it was announced that a feasibility study would be undertaken regarding investing £2bn at Piccadilly Station. A little sweet titbit for the north west, until the anger over the London announcement dies down. This government has no intention of providing any area outside the south east with a proper transport network. What made it even more nauseating was the sight of the Secretary of State for Transport, Ruth Kelly, a Greater Manchester MP, boasting on  television about the benefits this extra money would bring to London. I hope that come the next general election the people of Bolton show this woman the door.Suddenly, £4bn has arrived for transport, after we were denied the money for the ‘Big Bang’ Metrolink project. No wonder the Scots and the Welsh want independence.

One of the Forgotten People

It benefits Manchester too

MANCHESTER MPs’ campaign for sustained investment in our cities’ public transport infrastructure  will attract backing from London businesses. But the scale of public transport use in London is far greater than in the rest of the country. Four billion journeys were taken last year on the Underground, more than on the whole of the national rail network – on which London and south east operators account for two thirds of all passenger trips. If government transport spending in London looks high, so is spending by transport users. The government is providing only one third of the funding for Crossrail (a new east-west rail link in London ), with around £6bn coming directly from passengers, while the capital’s business community will contribute nearly £5bn. This is despite the fact that tax receipts from London support  public spending in the rest of the UK by up to £20bn a year. London’s transport infrastructure has been starved of investment for over a generation and is overcrowded and unreliable as a result. Foreign and home-grown business leaders are increasingly concerned at the inadequacy of our transport systems. As a world city, London competes with New York and Shanghai for business investment, not with Manchester or Edinburgh. Experience shows that successful global companies who invest in London headquarters go on to set up support offices in Manchester and other cities. If we fail to invest now, we risk sending ‘go away’ signals to those offering to create new jobs for London and Manchester. 

Irving Yass, London First