Sir, Often we hear people complaining about council lack of care and a lack of real concern from councillors, but I would like to give praise where it is due.
After a difficulty involving an elderly relative of ours, we felt we had to contact her councillors to ask for help with the situation.
Councillors Bob Duncan, Alan Ross and Norma McGovern immediately went to work, Councillor McGovern swinging into action within minutes of my wife emailing her.
The result was that a very worrying difficulty, which had been ongoing for some time and had begun with a simple error by someone wrongly writing down a telephone number, was sorted out in a couple of hours.
I have to say that, as someone who is generally sceptical about people and issues in politics, I am immensely impressed by the care these councillors made evident in their timely and caring response to our pleas for help.
Their swift and concerned actions have made this old political cynic reassess his views on politicians somewhat, and I would like to publicly thank them for showing that they do actually care for the people they represent.
Thanks are also due to Billy Simpson of Dundee’s Housing Investment Unit, who immediately took action to completely and finally resolve the issue.
(Captain) Ian F McRae. 17 Broomwell Gardens, Monikie.
Danger on the pavements
Sir, They are seen every day in Dundee city centre, Arbroath and elsewhere. Adults and children cycling on the pavements.
One recent morning I was emerging slowly from the driveway in the car when a young boy, presumably on his way to the local primary school, came cycling along at speed on the pavement and almost collided with the front of the car.
He swerved from the pavement on to the roadway, almost to the other side. Had there been any other moving vehicle using the roadway at that time he most certainly could have sustained a serious injury, perhaps even fatal injuries.
While I received a slight shock at the incident, the boy simply remounted his bike and continued on his way, along the pavement.
Pavement cycling seems to be a way of life nowadays, with nothing apparently being done about it. Some time ago, I wrote to the then Chief Constable on the subject of people cycling on pavements, but my letter was never even acknowledged.
A similar incident to the one aforementioned, at another time and another place, and the cyclist may not be so lucky.
L Forbes. Andson Street, Friockheim.
Stand shoulder to shoulder
Sir, Further to Nicola Sturgeon backing Imams’ message to extremist, (Courier, September 6), I would be delighted if all the church leaders in Scotland publicly declared their support for Scottish Muslims, standing shoulder to shoulder with them in speaking out against extremist organisations like IS and other extreme organisations within faith communities.
Also, as a follower of Jesus I believe we in the church must publicly declare that our faith in Jesus is not superior to other faiths, and ask forgiveness for all the harm we have caused in the past to Muslims and people of other faiths by “believing” that Christianity is the only true way to God.
The Christian Church in standing shoulder to shoulder with Muslims and people of other faiths, would send a clear message that, for people of faith, there are many ways to God. By standing shoulder to shoulder a new path to peace in the world would be found.
Grahame Lockhart. 15 Scott Street, Brechin.
Motivated by ‘manuals’
Sir, Your leader, Causes of terror must be tackled (September 4), will be applauded by those of politically-correct bent. The last sentence says it all while saying nothing.
Should we be so ignorant of terror-inspiring ideologies as to put the blame on those who do the killing? These killers are motivated by manuals of instruction on what needs done today and tomorrow and in which conquering and subjugation are sacred duties, leading to paradise.
I don’t mention the Koran, the Sira or the hadith. The media seems to have difficulty with any critical view of them.
To pre-empt any false comparison, the Bible comprises stories from history what happened in the distant past. And has only ten commands none aggressive.
Andrew Lawson. 9 MacLaren Gardens, Dundee.
Angry with the wrong people
Sir, I refer to the article on the reconsideration of planning and environmental issues at the proposed site of the new Madras School in St Andrews.
There has been a vindictive campaign by frustrated parents against the three ex-teachers at Madras who had the courage and determination to expose the lack of quality of consideration in the decision by Fife Council to endorse the Pipeland site.
The fury of the parents should more properly have been directed to Fife Council instead. A clear case of the principle “decide in haste, repent at leisure” that many in the current generation seem to have forgotten in this age of instant gratification.
Derek Farmer. Knightsward Farm, Anstruther.
Confidence at all-time low
Sir, The highly vocal group which represents itself as the voice of parents wanting the new Madras at Pipeland at any cost, reflects a lack of concern for the environmental and social damage a school in this area would cause.
They also appear indifferent to the resulting congestion on adjacent roads which house three emergency services ambulance, fire brigade and police, which would prejudice access to the community hospital. Advised by their own officials that a development at Pipeland would face serious informed opposition, they have nevertheless, pushed ahead with their plans.
The Pipeland supporters blame delays in achieving their ends on those who have objected to the Pipeland proposal. However, all delays to date have been caused by Fife Council itself. The first stage pre-determination hearing was postponed at the last minute because the council required to produce revised road traffic information.
Now the next stage of consideration by the local planning committee has been postponed because the flood prevention report submitted by the council has been found to be seriously flawed.
Objectors with engineering, planning and environmental qualifications highlighted serious road traffic and flooding issues during the first consultation. They repeated them during subsequent consultations. These expert opinions were totally ignored by the council in their anxiety to push their plans forward. The council “resolved” the traffic issues by making a deal with the Health Board to provide a few extra parking places.
However, the safety issues for pupils and patients identified by NHS Fife were conveniently forgotten. Then the congestion issues on the hospital access road were miraculously cured by an assumption that 50% of parents would drop off their children on Scooniehill Road.
Given their history, what confidence can be placed in Fife Council, as judge in its own case, to resolve the serious potential flooding issues which threaten the hospital and neighbouring houses, many of which have already experienced such traumatic events? It is fair to say that any confidence in Fife Council’s planning department is now at an all-time low!
Marysia Denyer. 132 Scooniehill Road, St Andrews.
Food market is best proposal
Sir, Councillor Livingstone is right (September 3): events alone cannot revive Perth city centre. Nor will his “ambitious plans”, which appear to comprise a highly unlikely “10-year master plan” costing £2 million for a park-and-sail Dundee link at West Kinfauns, “increased investment in Watergate and Tay Street” (funding and purpose unspecified) and easier car-parking. The proposal for a fresh food market hall in City Hall, and a revived Lesser Hall, is the perfect solution, creating a social hub for the city and thereby revitalising the shopping centre.
Vivian Linacre. 21 Marshall Place, Perth.
A comprehensive disaster
Sir, In the mid-1960s the Robbins Report recorded that there were 120,000 undergraduates in the UK and more than half of these were from state-funded grammar or direct grant schools.
Today some 1.5 million students in institutions of widely varying quality study for degrees of doubtful value in a market with only half a million jobs requiring graduate entry. In addition, the university chances of a child from a poor home in Northern Ireland with its fully selective school system are 50% greater than in fully comprehensive Scotland. Comprehensivisation has been a disaster and today there are wide areas of Scotland where the only way parents can obtain a decent secondary education for their children is to buy it.
The attempt to make universities the engines of social mobility was a mistake and the Social Mobility Commission’s suggestion that employers take up the task is just as misguided.
Rev Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
Would’ve been driven to despair
Sir, In your article regarding the Forth Road Bridge celebrations (September 5), you refer to a gallon of 4* (sic) costing an “eye-wateringly tiny” 60p (12 shillings) in 1964.
Anyone paying that price half a century ago would have been well and truly driven to despair when I bought my first car (an Austin A30) in 1969, I used to fill it with four gallons of “4*” at Salmonds in Kirkcaldy’s Gallatown for £1 (ie 25p/five bob a gallon).
Do you think that we can look forward to petrol prices coming down by over 50% again in five years time if the other Mr Salmond’s plans come to fruition?
Richard R Peters. 64 Lady Nairn Avenue, Kirkcaldy.
Not supported by proven data
Sir, Recently The Courier printed the statement that “upwards of 90% of climate scientists think humans are the main driver of global warming”. This is a political statement and is not supported by any proven data.
Such surveys as have been done, exclusively by AGW supporters, have been very limited in their scope, heavily biased and depend on questions which are meaningless. They are careful to exclude scientists from China, India or Russia, where support for AGW is limited. You may have knowledge of other research to justify your statement: if so it would be of interest to learn of it.
Bill McKenzie. 48 Fintry Place, Broughty Ferry.
Upgrade M8 rather than A9
Sir, The comments by Inspector Ian Martin of the traffic police in the piece on August 28 by your reporter Paul Reoch on the merits of fully dualling the A9 from Perth to Inverness, paint too a rosy picture of the likely benefits. The road could be made safer, but at a cost of £3 billion?
The full dualling of this stretch of roadway will turn it into the longest racetrack in Europe.
The misguided, according to the police inspector, who travel at 60/70 mph today will see an almost empty road stretching ahead of them for more than 100 miles. Drivers of tomorrow will be sorely tempted to put the foot down and race the full length at 80 mph and upwards.
Having recently, at the height of the tourist season, driven from Perth to John O’ Groats and back using the A9, the thing that strikes you most is the lack of traffic compared to roads in the central belt. If Scotland has £3 billion to spend on road upgrades much better value for the money would be obtained by upgrading the M8 to a proper three-lane motorway between Glasgow and the capital city Edinburgh.
It is this highway that deserves the upgrade being Scotland’s most crowded motorway. Busy every day of the year, it is used at some time by the vast majority of drivers living in Scotland.
Joseph A Peterson. 32 Kilrymont Road, St Andrews.
Why was road closed so long?
Sir, I read your recent report about the closure of Riverside Drive for three hours following an accident involving a cyclist. To close a main artery to and from the city for this length of time seems to me to be excessive.
The cost to businesses must run into thousands of pounds. There was no serious injury involved so what is the justification for closure for such a length of time? It used to be that the police priority was to get traffic flowing again as soon as possible.
What are police now investigating that they did not in the past or rather that they investigated later after traffic was restored to order. Are the police worried about being held responsible for something, and if so, by whom?
Closure of such length is surely excessive for an accident involving a vehicle and a bicycle which presumably were not blocking the road.
Neil Anderson. 4 Regent Place, West Ferry, Dundee.