Madam, – I agree with Councillor Watt’s contention that action on attempting to inject new life into Kirkcaldy High Street should be Fife Council’s priority.
Unfortunately, his fellow members have “form” in ignoring the views of the people they purport to represent. Over the past few years, we have had the “Green Corridor” at the Adam Smith roundabout; the protracted, expensive, and ultimately non-remunerative “improvements” at the west end, and the jewel in the crown – a new swimming pool on a congested postage stamp site with limited car parking.
Each of these spurious projects attracted a furore of negative comments, to which not a jot of regard was paid by those who know best.
The last of these projects is the most galling. Every other town of Kirkcaldy’s size has a bespoke leisure complex on a peripheral site, a commodity in which our town abounds.
Instead, ours was built on the most popular central car park, which was invariably filled to capacity.
I should be most interested to see a detailed analysis of our civic luminaries’ thinking as to why spending a fortune (with the inevitable lengthy disruption) on the promenade will bring shoppers flocking back to the town centre, but I’m not holding my breath.
Richard Peters.
Lady Nairn Avenue,
Kirkcaldy.
Try telling that to the tourists
Madam, – Sometimes frustration leads, out of desperation, to parody.
The revelation that the income from Angus Council’s parking charges was much less than expected (not entirely unforeseen) and the fact that the council now seems to be relying on tourists to make up the shortfall has taken this whole sorry tale from a disaster to the level of farce.
I would like to make my own contribution to this tragic-comedy. Could I suggest that the slogan for Angus Council’s tourist strategy should be “Come to Angus, pay your parking fee, see the rows of empty shops in our high streets”. That would get them flocking.
Brian Batson.
Lour Road,
Forfar.
Dawn of a dark new age
Madam, – Back in the mid-40s and early 50s, historians claim that after the Second World War, the UK was virtually bankrupt.
As a child at that time I can attest to the austerity and grief Dundee suffered.
Yet, between 1948 and 1952 I saw the inauguration of the NHS and the start of an immense social housing construction programme. How much social housing is being erected today?
In the 1950s, one only needed to walk into a GP’s surgery and wait less than an hour. Today, one must ring for an appointment and wait for a fortnight. Is the UK much poorer now than after the war?
I guess the 1960s really were the good old days, at least where it counts. Now this country bears no resemblance to that of my birth.
How blessed I am to have been born in the 1940s and not now, to have spent my youth in the wonderful 1960s when music and hope shone for the future. Such was our dream but how such is reality when so grey is our dawn.
And yet worse still is the black dawn of a no-deal Brexit if Westminster wavers while seeking a resolution to the impossible and the only answer is a customs union.
They say a customs union is not what the people voted for, but far less did they vote for a no-deal.
Leslie Isles Milligan.
Myrtlehall Gardens,
Dundee.
Blatant lies and a Brexit exodus
Madam, – Headline news on Saturday was the expectation that Nissan is about to announce that it will not be bringing production of its latest model to its factory in the NE of England, as had been expected.
Not so prominent that day was the news from the Institute of Directors that a third of UK firms are planning to move their businesses abroad in the event of a no-deal Brexit, and that more than 10% have already set up businesses outside the UK.
A few months ago hard line Brexiteer Jacob Rees Mogg’s Fund Management Company moved part of its business to Dublin because of concerns about “uncertainty” over Brexit. Brexit supporter Sir James Dyson recently announced that he was relocating his company HQ to Singapore.
Today we hear that 300,000 jobs could go in the UK tourism sector. I could go on, at great length, but I’m sure that you get my drift.
Meanwhile, the only companies that I can identify as making moves to set up in the UK are Trump Chlorinated Chicken Inc, MeesRoggRipofftheNHS and Co Ltd, and dePfeffelforking.org.
Actually, that last sentence is not true: I made it up. But, in the absence of anything good to say about Brexit, I felt that I had to have some balance in my argument, and, in the spirit of Brexit, it seemed that a blatant lie would be just the thing.
Les Mackay.
Carmichael Gardens,
Dundee.
View EU from the other side
Madam, – I am of the belief that, like many vast ponderous hierarchies, the EU is edging closer to a decline in its present form.
Led by a cabal of unelected self-centred minor politicians, with no risk to their positions and thus responsible only to themselves, they appear oblivious to the overwhelming need for instituting change.
They hold sway over 28 countries, a number of which are heavily in debt and experiencing growing unemployment and with the Eurozone approaching crisis.
Of these, the major net providers are Germany, France and the UK,each creaking with the strain and with public opinions running high.
Why therefore would the EU easily ever give the UK a safe passage to leave – and thus we have the infamous and non-negotiable “Backstop.”
As a once proud nation, which has stood in the past against tyranny, and fought to defend Europe from despots, we should grit our teeth, hold our nerve, show determination and a fair deal might be had in the end. After all it will be better in the long run to be on the outside looking in, than in the inside looking out.
David L Thomson.
Laurence Park,
Kinglassie.
