Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir, – Your article, Destroying Diseased Ash (November 1) stated that Forestry Commission Scotland are to force private woodland owners to destroy infected trees or be fined £5,000.
Firstly, there is no defence against an airborne virus so it must be accepted that the majority of ash trees in the UK will die.
Once this is accepted, all efforts to minimise the timber loss must be put in place. To do this, it is the unaffected trees that must be felled and stored for future use.
We would then have ash timber available for the next 20 years. This would be a simple exercise, which would give tree owners a return from their losses.
Diseased trees should be used for firewood.
There is absolutely no point in restricting movement unless the Forestry Commission can prevent the airborne virus and also prevent the wind from blowing affected leaves across the countryside.
Threatening owners with fines of £5,000 does not make for good relations, particularly as the Forestry Commission may well be blamed for allowing contaminated nursery stock from Europe into Britain.
The Forestry Commission cannot continue saying ”it wisna’ me”.
Unfortunately, I can foresee multiple claims against the Forestry Commission going through the courts.
In the meantime, I have asked the local Forestry Commission conservator for a meeting with other interested parties to clear the air and hopefully go forward together to make the best of a very bad job.
Donald Barker.CEO Broadleaf Trust,Auchtermuchty.
Airport should be aiming high
Sir, – Over quite a considerable time I have been following the publicity surrounding Dundee Airport and its apparent inability to handle larger aircraft than the Dornier 328 used on the London City route. A major drawback often quoted is that of the runway length of 4593 feet, limiting the size and type suitable.
Compare this with Santos Dumant Airport on the waterfront of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The runway there is only 4341ft 252ft shorter than Dundee but it is capable of handling 737s and MD80s amongst others. Regular flights operate to many places in Brazil, notably to the capital city Brasilia which is approximately 570 miles away a greater distance but nonetheless comparable in many ways to Dundee/London City.
Statistics from 2011 show a total of 130,026 aircraft operations, with a passenger throughput of 8,522,225, plus 5406 tonnes of cargo. Dundee’s figures for the same period are 3910 commercial flights,34,908 training movements and a mere 67,269 passengers.
The comparison is startling, but even making allowances for the differences in population does this not show the direction Dundee could be aiming for?
Ian Sansom.116 Stormont Road,Scone.
Wake up before it’s too late
Sir, – The decision to stop flights to Belfast and Birmingham is a real shame for Dundee and its airport. I have been travelling out of Dundee Airport for many years and have seen the ups and downs. I have seen it grow and now it will be just to London City. I worry for all the staff. What will happen to all the check-in staff, the security staff? All were great people who helped make the airport a bit special.
I have travelled since the flights to Belfast started, then caught the train down to Dublin. No hassle and no stress and at not much more cost than going from Edinburgh. Maybe what is needed from HIAL is some imagination. Maybe it’s too easy to take subsidies for all the other airports and maybe just Dundee once again ends up being the poor cousin.
I’m sorry, but the noise from our political leaders was deafening in its absence. Even our MSPs and MPs accepted it without much of a whimper. Wake up folks, we are losing a major communications hub. If we don’t start making a noise now Dundee Airport will once again become a landing strip for learner flyers.
Derek H Shaw.17 The Logan,Liff, Dundee.
Sowing the seeds of doubt
Sir, – Arthur Davis (October 25) resorted to the same tactics of ”the better in it together brigade” by attempting to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of possible pro-independence converts by introducing the concept of an irreversible disaster. If that is not scaremongering I don’t know what is.
Perhaps he has not read the report framed by the OECD which certainly has no connection whatsoever to the pro-independence campaign published earlier this year which pointed out that Scotland on its own would have the sixth most prosperous economy in the world compared to the position of the UK, which is 16th.
I may not be the shiniest button in the sewing box but when I was at school being sixth was always better than coming sixteenth.
As for the sitting MSP members of the so-called main opposition parties who try to frighten the electorate into believing that our country would not survive economically on its own, they seem oblivious to the fact that they are highlighting their own inferiority as politicians by suggesting they cannot run their country without the assistance of those who stalk the corridors of Westminster.
Allan MacDougall.37 Forth Park,Bridge of Allan.
Questions that need answers
Sir, – We live near Perth and have a son outside London and daughter in Belfast. If independence does happen it will cost a lot more to send them a letter or to phone them as they will be in a foreign country.
DVLA in Swansea registers our cars it would cost a fortune to set up a similar process in Scotland. When are these issues going to be raised?
Trident is big news but it is everyday things like the ones I’ve mentioned that we need clarification on.
Who will employ our postman in an independent Scotland? Or take over from BT to look after our telephone landlines?
Eddie Nicholson.30 Durley Dene Crescent,Bridge of Earn.
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. Letters should be accompanied by an address and a daytime telephone number.