Today’s letter writers cover a broad range of subjects including council perks, city status, Israel and Libya, green energy, school safety and evolution.
Officials grasp perks even during downturn Sir I was shocked when I read your article (April 16) about luxury cars being provided for the higher echelons of Angus Council at a cost of £800,000 a year.
Just how did this ever come about?
Surely we elect councillors to prevent this sort of thing but it appears that they are not doing their job.
What really infuriated me was your report that 30 out of the 33 officials eligible for this scheme refused to opt out when requested to do so in the face of the severest budget cuts councils have known for some time.
Perhaps I can suggest a better economy. These 30 senior officials should be given their P45s and the money saved would go some way to redress matters.
Jim Robertson.194 High Street,Montrose.
Give ancient cities equality
Sir According to the Scottish and United Kingdom parliaments, there are only six cities in Scotland.
These are Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee as city authorities and Stirling and Inverness as having been given letters patent by the Queen as a result of winning recent competitions.
However, there are a number of other towns such as Elgin, Brechin and Dunfermline which have, throughout the centuries, used the title city.
City status is a reserved matter and Westminster refuses to accept ancient prescriptive usage as being an acceptable reason for a town being recognised as a city in Scotland, although this is the case in England.
There is no logical reason why this is the case and is why an electronic petition has been lodged with the Scottish Parliament urging the Scottish Government to press for equality.
Bert McEwan.1 East View,Upper Millhill Street,Dunfermline.
Israel’s fight for survival
Sir Jan Benvie (April 17) tries to draw a parallel between rebels in Libya and Hamas in Gaza, thinking that both need UN protection equally.
If Gaddafi chooses to stop massacring his own subjects Libya could regain stability. If Jerusalem is forced to stop exercising her self-defence right, it will cease to exist.
Here lies one of the many differences between Israel fighting an enemy whose charter calls for a pan-Islamic Middle East and the mad and sadistic colonel who no longer has a mandate to govern.
By the way, it will amuse Ms Benvie to know that Libya at one time chaired the UN human rights body, whose hobby it was to regularly condemn Israel. Any wonder there are so many blood libels against Israel?
A. Soudry.318 Ayr Road,Glasgow.
Climate threat to our landscape
Sir I write to dispute some of the assertions by Helen McDade of the John Muir Trust (April 14).
Her letter stated that “DECC’s statistics show that, since 2000, onshore wind load factor has never exceeded 28%.”
This is incorrect. DECC figures actually show an average load factor from 1998 to 2009 of 29.2%, going over 30% in some years.
Annual average load factor for wind in Scotland has not fallen below 26% since the records began in 1998.
Ms McDade also commented that, “SNH statistics show that the percentage of Scotland’s natural landscape visually unaffected by built development dropped from 41% in 2002 to 28% in 2009.”
However, the SNH report does not identify wind farm developments as the main impact on wild land in Scotland.
Scottish Renewables has previously asked an independent consultant to check calculations by anti-wind farm campaigner Stuart Young and found significant discrepancies in his interpretation of data from National Grid, which is why we queried the accuracy of his latest figures.
Finally, incentives for clean electricity generation are anything but untargeted. They are very carefully and very deliberately focused on increasing output from clean energy sources such as wind, wave, hydro, tidal and biomass power in order to tackle climate change the biggest threat to Scotland’s natural heritage.
Rosie Vetter.Policy Manager,Scottish Renewables,49 Bath Street,Glasgow.
School safety compromised
Sir In the light of the campaign to install a crossing on Pitkerro Road at Morgan Academy, Dundee, I found it rather ridiculous that the 20mph limit lights southbound were not operating on Monday morning as school was going in.
Later, when there were no pupils in sight, the lights were flashing.
Obviously, whoever controls the lights had got the switch the wrong way round.
However, this is not an isolated event. Often the lights are only operating one way on Forfar Road at Morgan and I have seen the same in Pitkerro Road at St Vincent’s Primary and Arbroath Road at Craigie High.
Across Dundee, I am sure many of these lights are not being used properly, which is a shame considering their cost and the need to improve road safety.
John M. Richmond.12 Shamrock Street,Dundee.
Peddling nonsense
Sir Most rational-thinking people would, I suspect, take issue with George McMillan’s assertion (April 18) that the evolutionary argument for our existence is no further forward now than what is was in 1961.
If any conclusion can be drawn I would offer this like communism, his ghost ghoul and goblin theories have been found out for what they really are. Nonsense.
Nigel Austin.10 Shepherd Lane,Arbroath.
Get involved: to have your say on these or any other topics, email your letter to letters@thecourier.co.uk or send to Letters Editor, The Courier, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL.