[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by Charlie

Hello
Just a quick outline.. I.. and others that left Accrington in the mid 80's to "get on my bike" as the then tory goverment told me to do, after they had totaly destroyed the towns industry and public services.. having found this excellent ACCY WEB site .. I have to say I have not read so much right wing stuff since the old days of Micheal Howard and his Thatcherite croonies... we don't want gypsies we don't want asylum seekers, (do the tories ever pick on people that have a vote?) I would urge people that visit this site not to be bullied by the people who seem to make the most noise about thier views as to what Accrington should be.
don't let accrington get slumped into the days of untold unemployed teenagers sitting on the DECK agian.

I'm not racist. I don't judge or dislike anyone because of their racial origin.

I don't complain about gypsies because they choose to live a travelling life or because they claim to be an ethnic minority. (However the "gypsies" we have referred to on here are not true Romanies but of the same basic racial origin as many other non-travelling people)

I don't bully anyone. I have an opinion and I have as much right as you to voice that opinion.

And here are a few of my opinions:

I do NOT like people who temporarily park their caravans in areas not designated for that purpose (ie on the Aldi supermarket car park) and proceed to dump piles of filthy rotting smelly rubbish around the area before moving off and leaving somebody else to clean up the mess. Are you saying we should welcome such abuse of our beloved town? These people don't care about the town or the mess they leave behind but we do.

I do NOT like people receiving beneficial treatment because of their racial or ethnic origin. This is in itself racism and I find racism apalling. I want to be treated equally. I'm not claiming superiority, just asking for equality. Unfortunately we don't get equality and equally unfortunately this backfires on the ethnic minority it is meant to be protecting because it ends up with others resenting the preferential treatment they receive.

"don't let Accrington get slumped into the days of untold unemployed teenagers sitting on the DECK again" ???? First of all have you seen Accrington recently? It is full of unemployed teenagers and this is one of the things we complain about and yet you criticise us for complaining. And secondly, do you actually know what "the Deck" is/was? No-one sat there. It was a place to stand and watch the world go by.

Thing is Charlie, we live in Accrington and we happen to be very fond of the old place. We love our Coppice and we really don't want to see it defaced by a meaningless "Panopticon" We love it just the way it is. We have nothing against a work of art being situated elsewhere and would probably welcome a genuine work of art. Personally I like the beehive that Blackburn has although it's in such an out of the way location I bet many people haven't a clue what I'm talking about. We express concern about some of the ideas that have been put forward because we experience the current neglect and vandalism and can see how these things are going to end up the same way. Blindly assuming "something will turn up" to cover the cost of maintenance when HBC cannot afford to maintain the once beautiful parks in the borough is naive to say the least.

If the area where you live is free from vandalism and graffiti, free from rubbish dumped by travellers, free from crime perpetrated by "untouchables" for fear of being branded racist, free from pointless works of art which never worked and cost more money to be "mended", "amended" and finally totally abandoned, free of empty boarded up property, free of empty abandoned shops, full of beauty, full of shops worth shopping in and where you feel safe walking the streets in the daylight let alone in the evenings then I envy you but please don't criticise us for wanting our beloved town to be the same. Take a look at some of the old photos of Accy and then at some of the new - especially the neglect and the rubbish everywhere and then perhaps you will understand why some of us weep in despair.