Last updated 19:40, Thursday, 12 June 2008

HOW unfortunate the Times & Star letters page provided yet another example of the vilification of our youngsters. YOUR report that Workington train station is to have its first toilet installed in its 122 years was incorrect (Times & Star, June 6).WHO on earth ever said Workington main railway station never had public toilets?RE the article ‘What a Loo after all these years,’ about Workington Railway Station, during my time I worked on the railway as a bridge and station painter covering Workington to Carlisle, Workington to Penrith, and Workington to Foxfield coast line 1956-1961.IN THE 60s a bunch of us had a sudden passion to join the Maryport Operatics. More a dare, we were not to know that we would have great fun. That year it was Pirates of Penzance, and the female chorus had to wear huge crinolines. The only way from the dressing rooms, in the Empire, to the stage was down a narrow spiral staircase which we could not manage with our huge hoops!WE FINALLY have it in writing from a government inspector that wind farms are looked upon favourably despite local opinion. "Harm and policy conflict must be weighed against the benefits of renewable energy," the inspector said about the proposed Pica wind farm. IF YOU didn’t vote in the local elections then stop moaning. If you are a groaner, however, you have every right to keep on groaning, for thTHIS IS the defining year of the Treaty of Lisbon, which , if ratified will sink the UK further into the morass of European political interference.

Mrs Sloan, (letters, May 30) claims that ‘these young people can’t take their drink’ without making it clear that it is but a small percentage of young people who get drunk and cause a nuisance.

To read the newspapers or watch TV news one is likely to think that every kid is carrying a knife and when they are out they are up to no good.

That simply isn’t true. Most are law abiding, out to spend some time with their friends who are more likely to be victims of crime than the perpetrators.

This picture isn’t helped by the poorly introduced dispersal area in Cockermouth last month.

I know that some people find groups of young people intimidating and I do broadly welcome initiatives to deal with street disorder, but the introduction of a dispersal order by Allerdale council and Cumbria Constabulary for the town centre is, at best, a badly managed effort and, at worst, might be contrary to human rights legislation.

Let us be clear, the young people of Cockermouth have just the same rights as anyone else. They have the right under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights to ‘freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others’; a right that can only be restricted for reasons of public safety or for the prevention of disorder or crime.

With regard to the possible reasons for restricting this right, The public authorities have to show that the measure introduced is both proportionate, necessary and that there is no alternative.

In respect of this, perhaps it is right to consider the facts: firstly, the dispersal order applies to anyone, regardless of age. Cumbria police, in their media releases, mentions only young people, which might indicate to the casual reader that it is solely young people who are responsible for street disorder.

The only specific mention of age relates to the police power to remove to their home, any person under 16 who is found in the area between 9pm and 6am.

Secondly, at the meeting of Cockermouth Town Council in May, police announced a fall in drugs offences, assaults and criminal damage over the previous two months, figures, which must call into question the necessity of the dispersal order.

Finally I, as a parent of a 16 year old child, was appalled to have a letter addressed to me, distributed via the school, informing me of the introduction.

Perhaps if the police had bothered to open up a dialogue with the young people, a forum I feel sure Cockermouth School would have been happy to facilitate, they would have been able to explain to the people this affects most why they felt it necessary and, in return, they might have gained an insight into the world of the teenager if Miss Dumbill’s eloquent letter to the Times & Star was anything to go by.

To echo the words of Stuart Reeves, head teacher of Cockermouth School, the vast majority of kids are good kids. They don’t want to be demonised but treated with respect.

They don’t deserve to be blamed piecemeal for the ills of our society when it is the older generation who has manifestly let them down.

ASHLEY TIFFEN

Sunscales Avenue

Cockermouth

When the station was first built, there was a spacious, fully-tiled Gentleman’s toilet on platform one, also a Ladies Only waiting room with toilet.

Many years ago, due to budget constraints, a misguided railway official decided to save staff cleaning costs, by having the toilets removed.

JAMES E REAY

Seaton Park

Seaton

Anyone who used this station in British Rail days will tell you there were full toilet facilities on both platforms.

PETER COWMAN

Derwent Aveneu

Seaton

There was a gents’ toilet on the platform in Workington to Whitehaven, and on the Workington to Carlisle side a toilet for females.

F BROWN

Moorclose

Workington

We had to leave the building and wait in John Street shivering by another door until we were called. So there we are, a bevy of beauties queuing in our crinolines. One night a bus drew up and a young chap jumped out saying “how do we get to the Palace?” When he focused on us and our dresses, his jaw dropped and he looked back into the bus and said: “This Maryport’s bloody Brigadoon, lads; we’ve gone back in time”.

It was the Searchers.

My sisters remember the excitement of Edmundo Ross and Joe Loss but most of all my father playing the piano there in a dance band (Billy Iley, I think). My mother maintained that the Palace had the best sprung dance floor, which I found out when it was my turn to go to Crazy dances and to see the latest pop groups.

Heavy net underskirts soaked in pounds of sugar to be suitably stiff and the obligatory white belt were brought out. Large rollers and then agonising back combing and two cans of hairspray. There was no chap going to run his hands through your hair when fashion had to be observed. On high stiletto heels off we tottered.

Although I was only in my early teens my mother’s only advice was, ‘leave before it ends then you can get your coat out of the cloakroom!’ For some obscure reason there were only two ladies toilets for hundreds of women. Oh, and you put your coat ticket in your shoe. Much jostling for the mirror to don the Pan Stick and Evening in Paris.

The atmosphere was always a bit deadly until the pubs got out and the young bloods arrived. Mind you, we assured each other that we didn’t care as we had come to see the group, gone for the dancing, gone for a night out, anything but the actual purpose. Then there was much dancing with handbags in the middle. Airily looking into the middle distance, as though we didn’t care a jot if we were selected by a fella or not.

The lads stood at the side scanning what was on offer, but you had not to leave the Palace with a lad and then return because that damned you forever as a loose woman. There was no alcohol but if not chosen for the Twist or the Shake you could daintily suck on a straw and orangeade in the upstairs cafe; ogling, (demurely of course) the lads moving up and down the stairs. To leave without some conquest was failure indeed. By the time the last dance came, any geek could get a dance!

With the Tanner Hop at the Miners’ Welfare one night and then the Palace, there was no need for expensive gyms.

Is it a prerequisite to gaining a job as a planner to be a Philistine or have no appreciation of social and leisure history of an area? the Palace is more than just a building; it is our history and as such should have been preserved. But then Allerdale is not strong on preservation or appreciation. Netherhall crumbled, the Ritz gave way to urban planning. I guess we could say that Carlisle Castle is not now fit for the purpose that it was built for but many are glad that it wasn’t knocked down. The Cathedral probably isn’t making a profit but who would suggest demolishing it? Knock Maryport or Workington about, and that’s okay.

It’s only Maryport after all, what do they know? Let’s develop the docks and destroy or forget the rest of the town, but there will be many who will mourn the loss of the Palace.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

Anything to meet their target, which is looking unlikely. We can therefore expect few wind farms to be denied planning permission.

Five wind turbines are obviously profitable for the developers, considering they originally applied for 13.

Could we be told what the subsidy is that they receive for each and also how much they are paid for their electricity over and above the price to conventional producers?

W ELLWOOD

Chaucer Road

Workington

When the AA man on a rescue mission is told he can’t take his charges all the way home, what will they come up with next, and when will we say ‘enough?’It’s time to ask ourselves how important is it that British courts have the power to uphold British law?

Should we re-take control of our own agricultural fisheries policies? Do we want to recover the opt-out clause (already surrendered) from the EU Social Charter, which threatens the competitiveness of British industry? Do we want to go further down the road of political union or should we now sue for a change in our Euro- stance?

More importantly, how many of us know about the serious rancour that broke out in the pre-consultation debate, when someone with a sense of European history suggested that the inclusion of the word God would not be inappropriate in the new constitution. The motion was quickly exited from the chamber.

It is politically correct to forget that western society is founded on millennia of Christian tradition. They don’t do God in Europe, apparently.

It is, however, acceptable for ecology preachers to ascend podiums and proclaim the certainty of doom to the masses but unacceptable to uphold the certainties expressed in our Queen’s coronation oath.

Our God-conscious national anthem will soon require regulatory ear-muff health and safety warnings - Europe doesn’t believe in a God that saves anybody.

There is a resurgence of faith actively going on throughout the world, so why is Europe bucking the trend by insisting we follow them into a humanist-atheist labryinth filled with stalactites of human rights which have no reference to a divine order?

If 260 million, Americans possess such an open generous and positive lifestyle with a dime in every pocket proclaiming ‘in God we trust,’ then I’m up for it. Let God be God.

The ‘new’ Lisbon Treaty is a trick. The French and the Netherlands weren’t fooled in 2005, but the rabid centralists of Europe are trying it on aga in.

God bless the Irish if they say no, God help us if we don’t.

RAYMOND HALL

Isel Road

Cockermouth