Sir, I recently learned something almost unbelievable about the new Madras school Pipeland plan. The three emergency services are not even “statutory consultees” whose advice Fife Council must consider or follow. It seems they get involved only after projects are completed.
Even if not required by law, councillors could insist on having such expert opinions available, especially on their own developments. The service heads (police, fire, ambulance) could demand to be consulted, or publish their opinions anyway.
The film Towering Inferno ends with the fire chief telling the architect it would have made more sense for him to have been consulted first, during the design phase, before site work began.
So, a serious accident far up on the school site (fire, biomass explosion?) could become a disaster due to gridlock caused by normal traffic, plus 19 school buses, police cars, fire engines and ambulances converging at once at the site’s single access-point, shared with our hospital, with 1400 children, staff, patients and hospital staff on the wrong side of the exit.
If the school is built there, will another access point then be constructed by compulsory purchase of housing on the school’s north side, or higher up the green-belt on the A915?
Do the people making these decisions not consider such worst-case scenarios? And where are health and safety in all of this?
Annette Birkett. 12 Horseleys Park, St Andrews.
EU issue is complicated
Sir, Our polarising referendum solved nothing and left the Scots economically befuddled. Now David Cameron promises yet another one on the hugely complicated issue of our EU membership and the debate will inevitably descend into another xenophobic harangue.
The EU is costly but leaving and remaining part of the European Economic Area will incur most of the same costs and a lot more besides, such as continental tariffs.
This is the “Norway model” and we heard enough from Alex Salmond about that benighted land which I recall as a place where no-one smiles and everything costs the earth.
Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
Reality needed, not ideology
Sir, For the electorate to be best served, only a coalition between the two parties receiving the most votes would be effective, and that would be between Conservative and Labour.
Otherwise we have a situation where one party clings to office, but is constantly impeded by having to concede to the demands of a party that has no mandate to represent the electorate, and frequently no ability to do so either. The so-called balance of power.
The present coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberals clearly illustrates how the Liberals have acted as a brake on our economic recovery by gaining ideological concessions that don’t achieve anything.
Our economic plight is desperate and we are living beyond our means. It’s time for reality rather than ideology.
Malcolm Parkin. 15 Gamekeepers Road, Kinnesswood, Kinross.
Turbine map out of date
Sir, The most recent map of Scotland, prepared by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), showing the location of wind turbines is now 18 months out of date. Have the Scottish Government put pressure on SNH to delay the publication of an up-to-date map until after the general election?
A new map would show that Scotland has become the most crowded country in the world for wind turbines. At present Scotland has 2,683 turbines with 282 more under construction and a further 2,202 have planning consent.
New wind farm proposals will continue as long as there are “dripping roast” subsidies.
The SNP Scottish Government, led by Alex Salmond, pushed through more and more turbine applications despite council and public objections.
Remember this when you vote in May, since a vote for the SNP will be seen as amandate to erect yet more of these subsidy gobbling monstrosities.
Clark Cross. 138 Springfield Road, Linlithgow.
Very real results of “warming”
Sir, The consequences of global warming have been starkly illuminated recently with a small Pacific island nation being struck by a “super cyclone”. Vanuatu was hit by Pam, a category five storm the highest possible cyclone rating.
The full scale of the damage is yet to emerge, but thousands of homes are expected to have been destroyed and there are unconfirmed reports of dozens killed.
As well as cyclone Pam, unusually warm waters off the Californian coast are causing the highest number of sea-lion pup strandings over the past decade, scientists say. This is raising concerns about the long-term effects of climate change and rising ocean temperatures on the species.
Many of the pups are leaving the Channel Islands, an eight-island chain off the Southern California coast, in a desperate search for food.
A study published in October 2014 found that the ocean is getting warmer at a rate that far outpaces previous estimates. At the end of last year, a similar event: a massive gathering of walruses, 35,000 of them crowded onto a small strip of shore in Alaska. Scientists attributed the swarm to global warming and declining sea ice.
The walruses are telling us what the polar bears have told us and what many indigenous people have told us in the high Arctic, and that is that the Arctic environment is changing, extremely rapidly.
Alan Hinnrichs. 2 Gillespie Terrace, Dundee.
Scots used for “bargaining”
Sir, So a “grand coalition” between Tories and the Labour party is off the cards. A pact between SNP and the Tory Party is a definite non-starter.
An SNP and Labour coalition has met with the stereotypical position of non-committal that is prevalent in that other party known as the Liberal Democrats.
Cameron says: “It’s either me or Ed for Downing Street.” Ed’s rebuttal says a vote for the SNP will put Cameron’s Tories back in power to heap more misery on the Scottish public with their austerity programme a programme Labour will continue if in power.
If the Scottish electorate has not woken up to the fact that the unionist parties are using the Scots as bargaining chips in order to gain power in Westminster then it’s time for a wake-up call.
The way the major parties south of the border, with some of their colleagues here, show a deep disrespect for Scots means they are definitely not interested in the electorate here and are only in Westminster for self-interest reasons.
The only way to keep what Scotland gained from Westminster after the referendum, will be to vote for those who will defend our rights to keep those gains.
Bob Harper. 63a Pittenweem Road, Anstruther.
Read it more carefully
Sir, Yet another rant about cyclists (Ian Allan, yesterday’s letters). It seems cyclists have now taken to all sorts of fiendish practices, such as shouting at people to get out of the way instead of ringing their bells.
Such wickedness.
They are also guilty of being on public roads as if they had a right to do so. I mean just because they contribute to the upkeep of these roads through general taxation shouldn’t mean they can use them!
Worse is to follow, according to Mr Allan, in that these cyclists, with the connivance of an injury lawyer, have succeeded in overturning the ancient law of “natural justice” ie a person is presumed innocent until found guilty.
Terrible, indeed, were it to be true, but fortunately this legislation has nothing to do with a person being considered innocent or guilty. It concerns arrangements between insurance companies concerning the respective liabilities in the case of an accident involving a cyclist and a motorised vehicle already established practice in other countries.
A more thorough reading of the legislation would have made this perfectly clear to the complainer.
George White. 2 Cupar Road, Auchtermuchty.