Sir, To set in context Dundee City Council’s decision to close Marchbanks recycling centre it has to be acknowledged that local authorities throughout Scotland are living in an age of unprecedented budget cuts as a result of austerity measures imposed by Westminster.
Councillors have a legal responsibility to balance the council’s budget and, therefore, have difficult decisions to make. In the case of Dundee we are legally bound to achieve savings of £16 million over the next couple of years. This not only represents a substantial amount of money, but represents a substantial level of saving against the current budget.
The decisions taken as a result of this review will save in excess of £300,000 alone. It goes without saying careful consideration was given to the impact it would have.
In relation to concerns over fly-tipping, I am confident that residents who are responsible enough to utilise the facility at Marchbanks will be responsible enough to do likewise at Baldovie and Riverside. For the small minority of persons intent on fly-tipping the council’s enforcement team will continue to monitor the situation and take action.
It is also worth noting that from the furthest away residential property in Dundee to the Baldovie site still represents a relatively short distance to travel.
Moreover, we have in excess of 40 neighbourhood recycling points across the city which include locations in residential areas, supermarkets and council car parks.
We are in the process of identifying a location for such a site close to Marchbanks. A comprehensive list is available through the council’s website.
With regard to Waste Scotland Regulations, it is worth pointing out we are also in the process of reviewing waste collection arrangements across the city in an effort to maximise household recyclable opportunities.
Dundee City Council is absolutely committed to reaching statutory recycling targets. This decision was taken through necessity, not choice and I do not pretend that it is ideal.
Cllr Craig Melville. Convener of Dundee City Council’s Environment Department.
Councillor is wrong about City Hall
Sir I read with interest the article, Firms want City Hall to be retained, in Wednesday’s Courier, in particular the paragraphs referring to Councillor Grant’s architectural appreciation of the City Hall reinforced concrete and reconstituted stone?
One only has to visit Perth Public Library’s excellent archive section to view the relevant drawings to see that no reinforced concrete or reconstituted stone is involved.
The building’s structure is load-bearing quarried stone walls (which can be confirmed by inspecting the building) supporting a steel-trussed roof structure, the ground floor structure is steel joists also supported on stone walls.
I think Councillor Grant must be getting his knowledge of town halls mixed up.
Douglas Hamilton. St Martins Mill, Perth.
A controlled press a bigger danger
Sir, A press under state control is a much greater danger than a press out of control and there will be unintended consequences resulting from our beefed-up press regulation.
The journalistic misdeeds for which some have been arrested were criminal offences so the problem was not the regulatory system but the police failing to enforce the law.
This important legislation, a messy compromise reached after 11th-hour horse trading, is a hostage to fortune because the “light-touch” is clearly open to tougher future controls.
And does anyone seriously believe we would have heard about our MPs’ scandalous expenses had the press been “lightly” regulated by government?
Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
A massive learning curve for everyone
Sir, In response to the view by Colin Johnston (Letters, March 20), that beaver habitat no longer exists on Tayside, I would say quite simply that habitat obviously exists to support at least 150 of them, because that is the number we currently have.
Beavers are not yet present in much of the Tayside system and only present at very low density in other areas. In many of the areas where they are well established, they are barely touching the riparian woodland resource.
I would suggest that if we can have 150 beavers and scarcely notice them in most areas, then Tayside can probably sustain 500 – 600, maybe more than a thousand.
This is way more than enough for a self-sustaining population, without the need for any additional habitat creation.
How we use our natural environment has, of course, changed over 400 years and we couldn’t possibly have this number of animals without at least some of them causing problems. As Jim Perrett suggests, in the same column, there would need to be a system in place that deals with such situations as they arise.
This is a massive learning curve for everyone.
Victor Clements. Native Woodland Advice, Mamie’s Cottage, Taybridge Terrace, Aberfeldy.