Sir, – After reading the article (February 24) regarding the criticism of the large increase in the number of fines being imposed on drivers for speeding on the stretch of the Kingsway in Dundee with the newly reduced speed limit, there is one sure way that drivers need not contribute to any authorities.
I know it’s an alien concept to many drivers but I would suggest that the best way is to drive within applicable speed limits.
Not only will this save them money and points on their licences, they will be getting their own back on the authorities.
Also, I would suggest that 10 “uninjured” people be asked if they would be willing to give up their “uninjured” status so that drivers can get to their destinations one or two minutes earlier.
Today I drove for approximately 30 miles on the A90 and I drove with 70 mph showing on the speedo.
How many car drivers did I have to pull out to overtake? None.
How many matched my speed and sat a safe distance behind me? One.
Almost every other car driver, and a few van drivers, overtook me at a considerably higher speed than the permitted limit.
Those entirely responsible for the increase in the number of fines are the people whose foot is on the accelerator, no one else.
Dave Brimner. 15 Mearns Drive, Montrose.
Why do we pay for chaplains?
Sir, – The NHS spends £25 million a year on religious chaplains.
Religious people are tax payers too but we pay into the NHS to make sure, for example, that there is a brain scanner which we all might need.
Patients who might be comforted by religious words must be free to hear them but why should everyone pay?
Antony Lempert, chair of The Secular Medical Forum has said: “Our concerns are really about the conflation of religion and spirituality.”
The NHS must provide spiritual/emotional support for all patients but religious organisations can afford to fund their own pastoral care.
Neil Barber. Edinburgh Secular Society, Saughtonhall Drive, Edinburgh.
Motion had no substance
Sir, – I noted the extensive coverage given to Dundee city councillor Laurie Bidwell and his erroneous suggestion (February 24) that the revamp of council committees “may hinder pupils”.
However, perhaps the headline should have been along the lines of; “faux outrage fails to find backing”.
It was not just the SNP who backed this change, as members of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative groups also supported the administration.
In other words, there was cross-party support.
Councillor Bidwell did, however, gain the support of a former Labour councillor, along with the Labour group itself.
If Councillor Bidwell’s motion had any substance to it and had been argued persuasively, rather than simply being another in a long line of “the SNP is for it, so we are against it”, then I am sure the result could have been different.
Councillor KevinCordell. City Chambers, Dundee.
Confidence lost in Glenrothes
Sir, – What are the arguments for and against moving the Glenwood library in the west of Glenrothes (February 24) to the local high school close by?
I attended a debate at Loch Leven Community Campus in Kinross and saw there how the facilities of a new school could be combined with a well-equipped public library, sports and conference facilities.
Glenwood High School already is a community centre on a much smaller scale than the Kinross complex, so the case for providing a public library there should at least be considered.
But why go to all that trouble and expense when the one at the shopping centre is already giving people a perfectly adequate service?
The only answer to that is that the local authority must be thinking about giving up on the older part of the shopping precinct.
It should be thinking instead of how to revitalise it. This can be done by keeping the library open, putting housing money into the exterior and interior of the flats there, getting its officials to work harder on getting the empty units filled, and improving pedestrian access to the area.
That is the sort of positive thinking that might help restore public confidence in the council in the west of the town, a confidence that has been almost completely wiped out by the closure of a primary school and a local office in recent years.
Bob Taylor. 24 Shiel Court, Glenrothes.
Too much focus on entitlement
Sir, – It is difficult to know where to start in refuting the spurious claim from Allan MacDougall (February 22) that his letter was the result of meticulous and unbiased research.
He is right in one respect, the lights did indeed go out during the time of Ted Heath: the villains of the piece being Arthur Scargill and his miners’ union.
Chrysler closed at Linwood because the Government refused to put ever more taxpayers’ money into an enterprise whose products were of such poor quality that there was no chance of Chrysler ever becoming profitable, and it too was dominated by union aggression and pointless wildcat strikes.
Ravenscraig closed because its products were uncompetitive in an increasingly global market in which protectionism was outlawed as a consequence of UK being a member of the EU.
University graduates on the dole? Maybe that was because of an educational system that failed them by proscribing meritocracy, and creating courses which were of little interest to employers.
We are all proud to be Scottish, but that should be no reason to expect that Scotland is somehow a special case, deserving of special status in an increasingly competitive and fractious world.
The focus of too many Scots is entitlement. They should be responsibile for their lives. That is what true independence is all about.
Derek Farmer. Knightsward Farm, Anstruther.
No European victory for PM
Sir, – David Cameron’s claim of victory in European negotiations is reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain waving his now famous paper claiming “peace in our time”.
I struggle to see anything of lasting benefit to Britain with all the so-called concessions.
There is still no serious answer to the migration issue, other than a promise of a curb on benefits in future.
It appears that Austria is desperate and likely to place a curb on the numbers coming to it, to the anger of other European Union members, who seem to care little for member states’ problems.
Remember this is a union that, for 21 years, has witnessed independent auditors refuse to sign off financial accounts, citing misspending of money to the tune of £4.5 billion on the basis it was irregular and possibly illegal.
Despite that it has been pushed through by the rest of the cabal, with only Britain and two other countries against, an indication of how much the EU appears to care.
David L Thomson. 24 Laurence Park, Kinglassie.