A quick, positive vote for new housing too?

Sir,—Will the self-centred officials who voted in and supported the vote on Forth Bridge toll increases now, with similar haste, vote for top-quality, affordable and subsidised housing for those who have no option but to travel to Edinburgh and the Lothians for employment?

If the new housing was located at central areas of Edinburgh, and upmarket parts of the Lothians, I am sure it would prove to be acceptable to the commuters from north of the Forth.

This would, virtually at a stroke, eliminate the rush-hour traffic and return the areas north of the Lothians, to the neglected backwater that seem to be their intent. It would, perhaps, be even cheaper than building a new Forth crossing.

For the love of Scotland, abolish all bridge tolls and force into law at least one new means of crossing the Forth.

Shore to shore coal workings

Sir,—Is it just hearsay that at one time it was possible to descend into coal workings in Fife and emerge through similar coal workings south of the Forth?

Sandy Main declares that the geology of the Forth estuary makes a tunnel impossible (Letters, November 29). Tunnels come in many forms from prefabricated structures joined together on the sea bed to holes bored through deeper strata.

The geology of the English channel is far from ideal for tunnelling. “Impossible” is limited by the creativity and willpower available.

Time to go back south

Sir,—I had to read several times the article in The Courier on November 29 regarding the fracas of tolls on the Forth Road Bridge.

Did our worthy MSP, Christine May, actually state that it is only now that she “sees the importance of the bridge not just for Fife but for the whole economy of Scotland”?

Where has she been? What does she think the function of this main arterial road in the east of Scotland has been since it was opened in the 1960s?

With people of this calibre in the risible Scottish Parliament it is time we went back to Westminster before, as your other correspondents Mona Clark and Jim Parker say, it is too late. One quick way to reduce the council tax—abolish the non cost- effective Scottish “debating” chamber.

Not finished product yet

Sir,—I write in response to R. MacWalter’s comments regarding the SmartBus Realtime Passenger Information (Letters, November 24). Over 170 buses have already been installed with automatic vehicle location equipment in the Dundee area with the aim of displaying Realtime Information at all bus shelters.

The system is not yet at the end of its commissioning stages therefore some journeys are not yet being tracked. This should be rectified over the next couple of months.

Where a journey is being tracked, the system will display the arrival time in minutes, where it is not being tracked the scheduled arrival time is displayed as actual time, eg 1635, and will disappear at the timetabled arrival time.

With regard to printed timetables, by the end of March, 2006, all 900 bus stops in the city will have illuminated departure information and maps.

The SmartBus project is due for completion by spring next year and by then I am sure users will notice the benefits brought to public transport users in Dundee.

Not changed but betrayed

Sir,—We were told that the KOSB were not really going to change; that we would keep the “golden thread” of our traditions. Who on Earth coined that absurd phrase?

But Lt. General Irwin was right, we have since learned that indeed we are not going to change. We, the KOSB, raised in 1689, are not going to change—we will disappear.

We will lose our name; all our men, who will be made redundant or drafted to the Royal Engineers or the Adjutant-General’s Corps, or posted to the Royal Scots where they will be forced as a former lowland regiment to wear the kilt instead of their more ancient trews.

We will lose our colonel-in-chief; cap badge; our tartan; our colours; our 31 battle honours; our drums; our regimental march; our regimental charge and our regimental grace.

In due course we will lose our regimental association, our officers’ club and our regimental museum; our two mottoes; our second name of The City of Edinburgh Regiment; our association with that city; our local links with Border towns, villages and hamlets most of which have war memorials dating back to the Boer War; our privilege to guard HM The Queen at Ballater and Holyrood and to appear at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

We will lose our regimental magazine; annual Minden Day parades world-wide; associations with regiments in Canada, Australia and Malaysia; bonds of friendship with regiments in the USA and Sweden; the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh and of many Border towns and districts—many granted in 1989 when the regiment celebrated its 300th anniversary.

What will be retained? One word, “Borderers” in the new title The Royal Scots Borderers. Nothing else.

We have not been changed? We have been betrayed.

Pet still suffering

Sir,—It is now four weeks since ‘fireworks night’ and one of my pets is still suffering from fright as the explosions were right at the back of my house.

It’s a pity people don’t show more consideration for animals.