Life was so much better in the 1950s; now we have never had it so bad

UNTIL the early 1950s, we lived in Leeds. There was little traffic and we could park on the Headrow, Boar Lane and Briggate provided that we kept an eye on the tram lines.

There were no boarded-up shops and banks had branches everywhere. We paid by cheque or cash, free from the fraud of electronic transactions which affects so many of us.

It cost 2p to post a letter, prescriptions were free and I remember paying one shilling and a half penny for a gallon of petrol. Getting to see the greats like Stan Matthews and John Charles did not cost a fortune. We generally holidayed in the UK, avoiding the risks of foreign travel.

Morality has declined as we see so many children in one-parent families and many avoid the commitment of marriage or civil partnership. The aged were cared for by families, not the state.

We saw the beneficial effects of National Service. My sister and I walked the mile and a half to school each day – and then walked home in the afternoon.

Villages have become towns with little space between due in part to population rise, the global figures for which have gone off the clock and are the number one cause of pollution.

Village halls, churches and public houses were well attended but laptops and TV have had a sad, anti-social effect.

The UK was an independent state and Europe was a far happier place before attempts at homogenisation. We had a great fishing industry, factories producing British cars, motor cycles and household goods, now imported. In York we had our own gasworks, electricity generating firm and waterworks with charges a tiny fraction of today’s bills from mostly foreign-owned companies.

At just turned 90 years of age, I feel so lucky to have experienced a previous era, and if anyone tries to tell me that things are better now, they must forgive my laughter.

Think about town’s visitors

From: Andy Grinter, Castlegate, Knaresborough.

WE know Knaresborough is special and we know there’s lots of good stuff going on, but do other people?

Social media offers us a big, free marketing platform and the more ‘buzz’ we can create online the more followers we’ll get.

The more followers we have, the more people we have the opportunity to attract into town. Together we can produce a whole stack of content that the people of Knaresborough and beyond will want to see.

As well as marketing ourselves as an exciting retail destination with lots to offer customers, let’s also consider the practical factors that can make or break a visit to town. Call it the ‘customer experience’.

Things like parking, public toilets, pedestrian safety, wheelchair access, dog friendliness, rainy days’ seating, a car-free market place. Maybe if we improved signage and street lighting we would open town up to first time visitors?

Perhaps if we looked after visitors considerately, we would encourage them to stay longer in town? How about adopting a Visitor Management Policy, for example?

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones believes that the task of MPs, councillors, businesses and the public is to start catching up with changes to shopping habits and doing things differently to support our town centres. I agree.