YP Letters: Futurist Theatre could be made into a Scarborough success story

From: Dee Hawken and Glyn Lewis, St Michael's Guest House, Columbus Ravine, Scarborough.
What should happen to the Futurist Theatre in Scarborough?What should happen to the Futurist Theatre in Scarborough?
What should happen to the Futurist Theatre in Scarborough?

WITH regard to letters (The Yorkshire Post, October 10 and 13) asking for Scarborough to think again before demolishing the Futurist Theatre, we, along with many other people totally agree; but we think that it’s an open and shut case that it is going to go as the council just don’t want it regardless of public opinion.

With the new university due to open in Scarborough, students expect live entertainment and music; look at any university town. It can be agued that a theatre should be in use 365 days of the year and not just for the summer season as the consensus of opinion seems to be.

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Run with the right acts and the place will be self sufficient. We run a small guest house and have many regular guests who come to stay with us to go to Open Air Theatre, The Spa and Stephen Joseph Theatre at all times of the year. Most agree that it is a shame that the Futurist has been abandoned and allowed to get into such a state. Those that were lucky enough to visit there in the past have been awed by the amount of original features that remain well preserved, and find it difficult to believe that the theatre is no longer wanted or viable.

We believe that if everyone worked together in the promotion of the Futurist, along with the other Scarborough theatres, they could all be a real success. This would lead to greater numbers of people visiting our town, which would give a boost to other businesses and help the town and local economy to thrive again.

An economic cuckoo land


From: Gordon Lawrence, Stumperlowe View, Sheffield.

JOHN G Davies (The Yorkshire Post, October 30) must be bored to tears by the constant chorus of cuckoos as he flits from cloud to cloud. If he dropped to mother earth he may not be so derisive of the economic forces take no prisoners when governments overspend.

Clearly, expenditure on productive infrastructure is of prime importance but there are limits. Japan, for instance, is still in the economic doldrums after two decades of weak performance, in spite of spending ad lib on public works to get the economy moving.

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The Corbyn model, that JG Davies apparently espouses, is back in the clouds and is another example of hope radiating from ideology in defiance of experience.

It would reduce us to worse than the basket case that the Heath and Labour Governments achieved in the 70s. It took the much maligned Margaret Thatcher to rectify things.

It’s also convenient of Mr Davies in failing to mention the £1.4 trillion of our sovereign debt – vast and still growing. And funding it with crippling tax increases, another Corbyn solution, would stifle all chances of the UK being the innovative, enterprising economy that Theresa May anticipates in cultivating the welfare of the general public.

Letting down our libraries

From: Martin Vaughan, Stannington Road, Sheffield.

FIGURES released under the Freedom of Information Act show that visits at Sheffield branch libraries have fallen dramatically at library sites which have transferred to volunteers.

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In addition a little known fact is that volunteer libraries are not classed as part of the statutory library service which the council is legally obliged to provide 
under the relevant Act of Parliament.

The council obviously has money it thinks we need – such as the £180m retail development in Sheffield City Centre or the tasteless decision to host the Tour de France two years ago at a cost which could have kept librarians in jobs at all of Sheffield’s libraries.

A poor image of teachers

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

YOUR editorial (The Yorkshire Post, October 10) reports that “secondary school teachers in England work longer hours, get paid less than in most other countries and risk early burn out in their career”.

However, my observations as a former language teacher suggest they are also held in much lower public esteem than their foreign counterparts. This seems to be borne out by “Feedback” (The Yorkshire Post, October 11) according to which, 57 per cent of respondents think our teachers are paid enough money. Teachers in England clearly have an image problem. Who is to blame?

Boris has gone ‘off message’

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From: A.W. Clarke, Wold Croft, Sutton on Derwent.

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IT has not taken very long for our new Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, to go ‘off message’. Most people, I know were amazed to hear that he had been given the role and predicted that he would prove to be an embarrassment before too long and they have been proved correct in the assumption.

Surely he realises it is not the job of a member of the Government to incite people to demonstrate (The Yorkshire Post, October 12)? What will be the result if ‘rent a mob’ take him up and we end up with a riot? It has all the ingredients for making us a laughing stock.

We have all enjoyed watching his antics and I feel sure that he has added to the gaiety of the nation, but now a period of silence is called for.

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