Sir, From the opposing views published on Madras College, the Pipeland advocates who believe it’s the fast solution must be unaware how planning rules dictate development applications, particularly where the council is both developer and planning authority.
This option has so many conflicts with Fife Council’s own policies (green belt, TayPlan, St Andrews and East Fife local plan, landscape assessment and eight specific adopted local plan policies) that the process will inevitably be extended, quite possibly by an extra year and, legally, will be called in by the Scottish Government.
Also, it has major traffic implications (permanently, not just during construction) affecting fire, ambulance and police services, as well as on the hospital facilities and nearby residential areas, so does not even enjoy support by the council’s own transport department.
These issues require full unbiased consideration by the council’s own planning authority, the whole council, other public bodies and Holyrood and to highlight them cannot just be smeared as delaying tactics by North Haugh supporters. They are all legitimate factors affecting other departments within Fife Council itself which Planning is obliged to address and would apply even if no North Haugh group existed.
Its approval is by no means a done deal, as many assume. Ironically, it is this third-rate time-wasting proposal which is causing the delay affecting our schoolchildren’s best interests from St Andrews to Tayport.
A North Haugh application would avoid such delays and Holyrood referral and would ensure the new school’s completion faster than at Pipeland (and a superior one educationally and socially, with simpler construction on the Dunfermline template, for lower capital and ongoing costs), if Fife Council could swallow its pride and re-open talks with the university, based broadly on their joint pre-2011 Framework Memorandum whose target delivery date for the new Madras was August 2013!
John Birkett. 12 Horseleys Park, St Andrews.
Must consider this carefully
Sir, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has confirmed that the Government is to privatise student loans with the sale likely to be finalised in 2015.
In order to get a decent amount for the loan book, the Government is expected to offer sweeteners such as lifting the cap on interest paid on loans between 1998 and 2012.
More than ever school leavers must consider if they should attend a pretendy university to get a pretendy degree in a pretendy subject with little prospect of a graduate job.
And lashing out on mind-altering substances for four years loses its appeal if debt agency heavies are now going to call round for the next 20 with offers you dare not refuse.
Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
Where are their plans?
Sir, When we choose a new house, car, conservatory or garden hut we generally check what’s available and decide which suits best. Why should it not be the same in the independence referendum?
We now have the prospectus from the Scottish Government with their white paper, why then can we not have something similar from the unionists?
Why should one side have to produce answers from telephone charges to Doctor Who while the other criticises everything without providing a business plan for the union?
Many of the questions that the “No” campaign will demand answers to this week are ones that only they can answer anyway but it doesn’t stop them though.
The UK Government, as only they can, could clear up the confusion with a letter to the EU but they prefer to keep us in the dark. It would be strange indeed if they were to also cut off their nose to spite their face by wrecking their balance of payments by not agreeing a currency union. The return to Triple “A” credit rating would seem a long way off in such circumstance.
They are forever demanding a plan “B” from the Scottish Government if it was refused. Yet won’t say definitively they would refuse it. They can’t have it all ways. The UK Government now seems to be awakening to the fear of losing Scotland with its North Sea oil, Trident base, not to mention abundant fresh water and limitless renewable energy potential and now the only shipyards capable of building their ships.
So not only do they want to keep their own plans secret, they’re determined to show utter contempt for the Scottish people by doing everything they can to prevent them from being able to make a fair judgement on the “Yes” case too. They were elected to serve all the British people, not just those not thinking of leaving.
BJW Macfarlane. 10 Beck Crescent, Dunfermline.
Future is vague and unsure
Sir, Surely Alex Salmond has shot himself in the foot again. He says Scotland has never been in a better condition for independence. If this is the case, then I, and millions of other people living in Scotland, and “ex-pat” Scots, (some no further away than England), must attribute this “readiness” to Scotland’s existence within the union. Case for the union made.
Mr Salmond wishes to abandon this union in favour of a vaguely described future of unclear monarchy or republic; and an unestablished type of democratic representation based on the result of a “vote if you wish” referendum. A majority of one will suffice, I’m told.
Acceptance for membership of various international organisations is assumed, but not assured. On such does the future of our country depend.
A T Geddie. 68 Carleton Avenue, Glenrothes.
A poignant reminder
Sir, Once again The Courier stands head and shoulders above the rest with its coverage of issues affecting our armed forces and veterans. In yesterday’s paper you devoted several column inches to the opening of Fife’s new Garden for Heroes, a poignant reminder of the sacrifices that Fifers and their families have paid in the service of their country. I wish all those in Courier Country and those serving this nation at home and abroad a very Merry Christmas.
David Cruickshanks. Veterans Assist Scotland.
Should have kept it!
Sir, Regarding yesterday’s story about the wrongly cut £20 note; a few years ago I found a £10 note which also had a badly cut margin.
I paid it in with some other notes at our local bank where I mentioned it to the lady teller. She asked me to take it off my pay-in slip and told me that it would have to go to Edinburgh for verification.
A couple of weeks later I mentioned that it had not been repaid into my account and she pointed out an amount of £6.30 or thereby the £3.70 had been to cover administrative costs.
My outburst had the manager out to see what was happening and the balance was restored over a cup of coffee in his office. However, I wish now that I had kept it!
Russell Smith. Morar, Kirriemuir.
Hitting out at the wrong business
Sir, I was astounded to read yesterday that Police Scotland were attempting to make a local business unviable by seeking to have its hours of business restricted. Even more astounded that two local councillors were in agreement!
Pie Bobs does not sell the alcohol that appears to be the root cause of it all. Perhaps it would be more appropriate for our police and councillors to reduce the hours of the places that do sell it and to deal more robustly with their proprietors and customers if there are problems emanating from such places.
Neil Elford and his staff, far from being penalised by the police, should be given every protection in providing a much used service. Whatever happened to charges of “drunk and disorderly” followed by a hefty fine in the morning?
John Dorward. 89 Brechin Road, Arbroath.
Not taken in by this nonsense
Sir, Project Fear’s scare stories are getting sillier by the minute. In yesterday’s “Courier” we read that in an independent Scotland we would have smaller pensions than the rest of the UK, there would be border controls with England and there were scare stories for the kids that Doctor Who would no longer be shown in Scotland.
I can see no reason whatever why Scottish pensions should be lower than anyone else’s in mainland Britain; I’m not too sure about the legality of border controls within EU countries but lucky old us, we’ll have our very own “Checkpoint Charlie” on the M6 and an Algerian friend of mine tells me that he was watching Dr Who in Algeria in the Sixties. Whovians are an international lot and I cannot see the Scots being deliberately denied access to this programme by the BBC. After all they will want the highest possible ratings.
Reasoned debate is impossible while these nonsensical stories are touted by the “No” campaign but it seems will they grasp at any straw to downplay the advantages that an independent Scotland would bring. I trust that my fellow Scots have too much smeddum to be taken by this nonsense.
Jim Robertson. 194 High Street, Montrose.
Won’t be based on fantasies
Sir, I am surprised that Ken Clark (letters, November 20) has not heard more of the case for the union, which is not only compelling but also widely communicated.
His letter and his previous correspondence in your columns suggest that he would only start to notice if Better Together were to make unrealistic promises to rival those of the Nationalists, which of course they will not do.
The Better Together campaign for the retention of the status quo must of necessity be more conservative (small “c”) than that of the SNP which feels free to indulge itself in the supposedly vote-catching fantasies for which Mr Clark appears to fall.
Does anyone really believe that Mr Salmond’s plans will save an independent Scotland from a whole range of economic problems which beset not only the UK but the whole Western world?
Arthur Davis. Kinnaird Steading, Pitlochry.
Equality?
Sir, Three female RAF recruits have each been awarded £100,000 by the Ministry of Defence over injuries reportedly caused by marching. Is this what equality is all about? What next compensation for breaking a finger nail cleaning an assault rifle? I foresee a miracle in a few months’ time when, surprise surprise, the symptoms disappear and life resumes. There are servicemen who have fought and died or been seriously injured who are more deserving of compensation.
Clark Cross. 138 Springfield Road, Linlithgow.