Sir,- My heart sank when I read Perth & Kinross Council are to fund a world-wide design competition for the City Hall site (Courier, October 1), which would be cumbersome (13,000 entries for Dundee’s V&A), very expensive and offer no guarantee of a world-class result.
What is needed is a clever and beautiful solution to enhance the heart of the city, and there are plenty of excellent Scottish architects who can provide that.
Of course we hope to be selected as City of Culture, but far from signalling Perth aspires to be a world-class (that over-used and foolish aspiration) small city, it merely displays a slightly desperate provincial inferiority complex.
It is certainly no guarantee of success – the late Zaha Hadid’s Museum of Transport in Glasgow is dull, grossly over-engineered – therefore excessively expensive – and does not display the exhibits properly.
If a local firm – Keppies (which as Keppie Henderson first employed Charles Rennie Mackintosh) – can produce the successful and popular Perth Concert Hall, there is no need to lure a “starchitect” from London or Japan (and we still have to reserve judgement on the V & A).
Simply give the six best architectural practices in Scotland a good brief and you can be confident of a result to be proud of –and, possibly, at half the price.
The cash saved can be spent on cleaning up some of Perth’s handsome but shabby older buildings, patching pavements and streets and … but now I am fantasising!
David Roche,
6 Conachar Court,
Isla Road,
Perth.
Words of wisdom for planners
Sir,- Regarding the Scone 700-house plan, I note planning officer, Bea Nichol, of Perth & Kinross Council, appears to think it is “unclear as to the actual number of responses received and where those that did respond lived”.
Is she incapable of actually reading the results of the questionnaire?
It states quite specifically that “the number in the pie chart = the actual number of respondents”.
And just to ensure Ms Nichol knows the number, it was 1,191.
Where was the response from?
Yes, of course, it was distributed to people in Perth, Western Australia.
It was delivered, actually, to 2,449 houses in Scone.
Surprise there, then. According to Ms Nichol: “it is unlikely that the first 100 units will be built by the time the Cross Tay Link Road is complete.”
That would be why potential customers are being told to put their names down for houses to be ready in 2017-18.
Ms Nicholl, also states: “The council is not in a position to revisit this decision.”
This would be the same council that only recently stated in The Courier that density of housing could be raised or lowered depending on circumstances.
Who, I wonder, has given Ms Nichol the right, to speak so authoritatively on behalf of Perth and Kinross Council?
Mike Moir.
1 Woollcombe Square,
Scone.
Tolerance is very subjective
Sir,- There is a certain degree of hubris in the self-congratulatory tone in the article about Scotland becoming more tolerant (Courier, October 1).
While there have been positive and welcome changes in some attitudes I wonder if questioning whether Scotland is more tolerant will itself be tolerated.
The recent referendums, the hate mobs on twitter if you dare to question liberal version of morality, the intolerance about the disabled in the womb, the stigma attached to mental health, the hatred directed against the Catholic church and other Christians who dare to challenge the prevailing opinion, and the growing gap between rich and poor are all evidence we are not quite as tolerant and equal as we like to boast.
I can give numerous examples of those who have been discriminated against because they do not share the morals of the current zeitgeist.
The social work student who was told he would be failed if he posted anything on the internet stating he was opposed to same-sex marriage and the nurses who were threatened because they opposed abortion.
Only this week I was on my way to speak at a cafe in a well known supermarket when a phone call came saying I was to be banned from speaking there because of the company’s “equalities” policy.
Ironically, I was due to be speaking on whether religion causes strife and the role of tolerance and religious freedom.
It appears some are more equal than others.
It is all very well to boast of tolerance when it is your views that are being tolerated.
David A Robertson.
Solas Centre for Public Christianity,
St Peters Free Church,
4 St Peter St,
Dundee.
Extortion in the service station
Sir,- Recently I drove home 940 miles from Brittany France.
My wife and I suffered five hours of delays from road traffic and Channel tunnel in France and England to arrive tired at a Black Country motorway service area car park in the middle of the night.
After buying some food, we decided that on safety grounds we should have a nap for an hour or so.
However, clearly even more exhausted than we thought, we slept for more than four hours.
We then drove the 5.5 hours home, arriving 25 hours after departing instead of the 15 hours the satnav had promised.
As a reward, I’ve just received by post a demand from agents of the services owner for the sum of £100 for alleged unauthorised parking (we apparently parked longer than the mandatory two hours) supported by the worst pictorial evidence possible to imagine.
So, after reading countless signs all over England telling us “Tiredness kills take a break” we get a £100 charge notice for taking that advice from the owner of the services that are supposed to provide for that break.
If only I had known I’d sleep in, I’d have booked into a motel and saved myself around £50.
Perhaps they were miffed I didn’t.
Brian Macfarlane.
10 Beck Crescent,
Dunfermline.
The inevitability of fracking
Sir,- It was significant the SNP shunned Ineos to mark the arrival of the first shipment of fracked shale gas from the US to the Ineos plant at Grangemouth.
The inevitability of the march of shale gas has been known for years, including the impact it would have on the world prices for oil, plus the importance to secure future cheap and reliable supplies of gas from the US to keep Grangemouth open for business as the north sea runs out.
Indeed the only political parties who have been in denial from the very beginning are the SNP and the Greens, who have consistently refused to embrace the future of affordable gas on our doorstep and instead continue to support investment in expensive useless industrial-scale wind turbines manufactured from abroad.
The conundrum for the SNP is that as a single-issue party they totally rely on supporters from all the sectors of the political spectrum – from the Tartan Tories at one end to Labour pretenders and beyond at the other, all bound together in the hope of independence.
This means objective thinking is very hard for the SNP, lest they upset any of their disparate supporters even if the hierarchy knows carefully regulated fracking is the right policy to follow.
Despite the risks for the SNP, my guess is that there will eventually be some form of fudge claiming “evidence-based” support for fracking from some obscure enquiry allowing operations to commence.
Its only a matter of time and the sooner the better for Scotland.
Ian lakin.
Pinelands,
Murtle den Road,
Aberdeen.
Lack of justice for veterans
Sir,- Who is Theresa May trying to kid when she said: “We will repay them with gratitude and put an end to the industry of vexatious claims that have pursued those who have served in previous conflicts?”
If an ex-service nuclear veteran, requests legitimate levels of radiation they were exposed to during the British nuclear tests, they are informed their question is vexatious and their request is denied.
When attempting to get action regarding a “forged” release medical certificate, with information 10 years out of date, handed into the courts by the secretary of state for defence, I am informed: “The secretary of state is an honourable man and cannot be held to account due to the actions of others”.
The Ministry of Defence has on its staff “inveterate liars”.
Nuclear veterans are denied legal aid to fight their cases, yet illegal immigrants and convicted criminals succeed.
Is this the justice Theresa May requires for the United Kingdom’s serving and ex-service personnel?
David Whyte.
73 Blackcraigs,
Kirkcaldy.