On the agenda today: protection of wild salmon, the St Andrews housing market, fuel economy, the Perth Connect2 bridge project, and nuclear power.
Intervention needed to preserve wild salmon
Sir,-The letter by Eric McVicar (January 29) concerning the protection of wild salmon stocks makes very good points.
As a salmon angler for over 30 years, I am finding it increasingly difficult to justify the pursuit, taking into account the threats facing the wild salmon and the topsy-turvy approach towards ensuring its survival.
It is no comfort to be coerced to adopt catch-and-release angling while watching a huge population of seals and piscivorous birds such as goosanders, mergansers and cormorants decimate stocks.
Most anglers will fish happily for the chance of one salmon a day. Each of the thousands of seals inhabiting our estuaries consumes or fatally injures several adult salmon a day, while the fish-eating birds will each consume a dozen or more juvenile fish each day.
A belief that nature will put everything right by reaching a balance between predator and prey is untenable because the ecology and the hierarchy of prey and predation has been altered by human intervention. Whether we like it or not, the responsibility for managing the fate of the wild Scottish salmon is ours.
Considering the diminishing returns of fish and oppressive regulation of salmon angling in the UK, is it any wonder that many are giving up the pursuit, or taking their salmon-angling budget overseas?
If we wish to continue to have viable stocks of wild salmon and sea trout, we need an ecologically-informed programme for supporting them. A scientific approach to predator management and a keener perception of the damage done to stocks by the salmon farming industry would be essential components.
Anthony Prior.84 Myreside Road,Edinburgh.
You cannot buck housing market
Sir,-We want to clarify a few points for Mr McIntosh (January 26). An HMO limit is not a silver bullet which will suddenly make house prices affordable.
The average St Andrews house price is £240,000 in line with many other beautiful, coastal towns. The average in North Berwick is £268,000. You would have to shut down the university, the Old Course, beaches and most shops to overcome the power of the market.
It is a myth that St Andrews is losing out financially because of students. We and the university generate over £300 million a year for the Scottish economy and bring £40 million of spending money to local businesses.
HMOs were created to ensure tenant safety, not to encourage social engineering.
An HMO cap would put students at risk by forcing them to turn to illegal landlords and would disperse the student demand to the edges of town the very places where families might actually want to live and be able to afford it.
Siena Parker and Owen Wilton.Students’ Association,St Mary’s Place,St Andrews.
Drive with consideration
Sir,-With reference to the letter from Neil Sinclair (January 31) regarding reducing speed to save fuel, my car, like many others, is fitted with a six-speed gearbox designed to save fuel.
Unfortunately, due to being held up behind slow drivers, driving in sixth gear is seldom possible and, more than often, this applies to fifth gear as well.
Driving in lower gears increases fuel consumption considerably and Mr Sinclair should bear this in mind when he observes a long queue of traffic behind him.
David Thomson.29 Carr Crescent,Crail.
Expenditure without research
Sir,-I wrote to Perth and Kinross Council to ask whether any survey had been conducted to determine the potential number of users of the expensive Connect2 bridge project.
I have had a reply, which says that an average of 352 pedestrians walk on the North Inch each day and an average of 31 cyclists use the North Inch paths each day.
The reply goes on to say that the plan for the bridge “does not contain an estimate of future user numbers for the bridge, although it could be assumed that a percentage of current users of the North Inch would use the bridge”.
I am appalled that so much public money could be considered wise expenditure by our council without any proper research.
The answer from Perth and Kinross Council confirms my view that the bridge should not be built and calls in to question the judgment and competence of those who dreamed up the idea and continue to support the plan.
Garry Barnett.The Garden House,Campsie Hill,Guildtown.
Limitations of nuclear dream
Sir,-It was only a matter of time before the red herring of obtaining uranium from seawater (January 31) made it into the debate over whether nuclear is preferable to renewables.
There is plenty of uranium in the oceans but, then again, there is also enough gold in them to coat every square foot of land inches deep. The reason no-one has attempted to extract it is that the expense outweighs the value of the gold.
Similarly, the expense of extracting uranium would be prohibitive. It is also worth mentioning the millions of square kilometres that would be required to farm the uranium. It would be an ecological disaster.
Added to this expense, we have the costs of decommissioning nuclear plants. These are deliberately kept out of the costs of producing nuclear power.
Dounreay was shut down 17 years ago but decommissioning will not be complete for another 25 years. It will remain monitored but unusable for a further 300 years while the dangerous waste will have to be stored safely for millennia. All at a cost of several billions of pounds.
If people expect nuclear to provide cheap, clean power well into the future, they are very much mistaken.
Stuart Allan.8 Nelson Street.Dundee.
Get involved: to have your say on these or any other topics, email your letter to letters@thecourier.co.uk or send to Letters Editor, The Courier, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL.