Sir, I refer to the letter written by Graeme Browne of Shelter, Scotland (The ‘bedroom tax’ and poverty of choice), which was published in Monday’s Courier.
Mr Browne continues the perfidy that a decrease in housing benefit is a “tax”.
It isn’t a tax.
It’s a decrease in welfare benefit and therefore the poorest aren’t paying more.
They are simply getting less in welfare payments relative to the size of house they live in.
It’s not so long ago that people were screaming and shouting about the fact that councils in England were housing immigrant families on welfare in houses valued in the millions and paying commensurate rental rates at taxpayers’ expense. Something had to give.
But it’s dishonest of Browne, and others, to describe welfare cuts as a tax.
Derek Farmer. Knightsward Farm, Anstruther.
Must be culture for everyone
Sir, I am extremely proud that my home city of Dundee could be the UK City of Culture. Dundee has been much maligned over the years by comedians, politicians, some journalists and even some of its own inhabitants, but now there’s a first-class waterfront taking shape a big money project that will transform one of the loveliest estuaries in the world. And we are getting rid of the “ugly” buildings.
A centre of culture is also coming but what is this culture to be? I am reminded of the situation in London a number of years ago when an opera house (or a ballet company) managed to get a tidy sum from the Lottery Fund to keep the price of tickets to the venue at “under £100”.
Will this be the kind of culture coming to Dundee?
Since the council here hived off bits of the Communities and Leisure Department and created Dundee Leisure an arms’ length company with much of the same staff and management we have free rein for ambitious managers to bring things to Dundee that will be enjoyed, I fear, by a select few. I’m not including the V&A in this. We shall have to wait and see what the admission is, though I am sure museum admission in the UK is supposed to be free.
The City of Culture must be for all its citizens and not comprise enterprises brought here as the “pet likes or projects” of a few people.
So, will the range of culture be wide, to include the widest audience, and will the costs to participate be within the reach of those in areas of Dundee where incomes are below the national average, or will it be subsidised enjoyment for the toffs in the better parts and the dormitory towns and villages that hang on to the city’s coat-tails to benefit from being so close to Dundee, without paying the council tax?
Ken MacDougall. 3 Logie Avenue, Dundee.
The sheer folly of demolition
Sir, Whilst the councillors’ £4.5 million plan for demolition of Perth City Hall replacing it with a roofless empty space may fall short of the destructiveness and sheer folly of setting off a bomb in this potentially very useful old building, it’s a very dopey scheme nonetheless.
With the Bank of Scotland’s protracted scaffolding and reconstruction work in King Edward Street as a relatively mild forewarning to those in business in the vicinity, the demolition option should be regarded as a diabolical prospect which will be damaging to trade.
There will also be the loss of the chance to relocate the presently remote tourist information and the disabled persons’ library and also to gain visitor-attracting trade, eg, the fresh food market and restoration of well-remembered social functions the City Hall used to house.
Isabel & Charles Wardrop. 111 Viewlands Road West, Perth.
Road pricing a fairer method
Sir, In response to your leader of October 29, High price of car tax proposal, I would point out that Reform Scotland has been arguing for some time that the Scottish Parliament should be responsible for raising the majority of the money it spends, an idea that we first advocated in 2008 and again in our Devo Plus proposals.
We believe that amongst other things, these powers could be used to introduce a fairer system for charging motorists, which would take into account when and where they were driving, while scrapping vehicle excise duty and fuel duty. Removing fuel duty would take almost 70p off the price per litre at the pumps.
The leader suggests that costs for setting up a pay-as-you-go system will have increased since the Department of Transport feasibility in 2004. In fact, the opposite is true, and a report by John Walker for the RAC Foundation in 2011 highlights that falling technology costs and advances in technology mean that the cost will now be lower.
Motoring groups such as the RAC and Institute of Advanced Motorists have backed the principle of road pricing and we believe it would help to cut congestion, reduce carbon emissions, and provide a fairer and more effective method of paying for use of road space, particularly for people in rural areas who pay the same level of fuel duty as those in urban areas yet contribute little to congestion on our roads.
Geoff Mawdsley. Director, Reform Scotland.