HAVING just received and read the Citizen I feel I must write to say that sadly I agree with P J Hayhurst in your letters section. I, too, am in my forties and my views are alike. I originate from Manchester and always viewed Blackpool as a boozing holiday, also handy for finding female friendship, but never as a place to holiday with my family.

I now live here but rarely, if ever, use any facilities, they are as P J Hayhurst suggested too dear or just not good enough, even in off peak times. I have read a lot in the past few weeks about Blackpool and casinos etc and also about the pros and cons of various things.

P J Hayhurst again is right. Blackpool is overpriced and people know it. Crime is rife with a lot not being reported and Blackpool has to be one of the dirtiest towns in Europe.

Why can we not learn from Europe and clean up our streets in the small hours after the revellers have gone to bed. To be frank, some days it is hard to believe we have any street cleaners. At least that is the way it looks in South Shore. Take a drive around early Sunday morning 8 or 9am and it is disgusting and shameful.

Another thing that is annoying is the incessant moaning about the finance of the lights. To rely on business and local residents paying extra council taxes is unbelievable. Why should this be?

This once great town could and should be self-sufficient as far as funding goes, even profitable. Consider what I am about to say: Parking, is just one issue. January to May seems to be a "park anywhere" time, where people can and do park illegally without fear of being booked. Is this the forerunner of the "allow drug users to carry drugs" scandal elsewhere in the country?

This has gone on for years. Do we have laws to abide by or can somebody just say "oh forget that law for a month or two"? Even now in July take a small section of Blackpool, from the Manchester pub to the traffic lights at Waterloo Road along Lytham Road. Walk this length of road on most days looking up the side roads along its length and I would almost guarantee that you will find at least 25 illegally parked vehicles.

On a good day I have counted in excess of 100, though that was in the "park where you want" time. Give me parking tickets to hand out and I would earn Blackpool a fortune.

This is just one possible form of finance. Having said all this, the cost of parking in Blackpool is also overpriced, almost making it cheaper to get a parking ticket.

I believe that as is the case with councillors, politicians and other people with power of any sort, they all worry about themselves first. Anything else, i.e. Blackpool, comes second. How do you imagine they all amass wealth and power and even more wealth and power?

It would be naive to believe that anybody really puts Blackpool before anything else. My dear dad's favourite saying is true --"everything and everybody has a price."

Name and address supplied.