Today’s correspondents discuss public transport publicity in Fife, the fear of new Highland Clearances, taxpayer funding for a bank, and a visit to Dundee after a long absence.
Wonderful transformation of a citySir, My wife and I visited Dundee recently for the first time since I lived there in 1971/72 while studying at university.
What a difference. Congratulations to everyone who has been involved in the renaissance of the city. We visited the McManus Gallery and saw the Titian. What a coup to get it for the city.
We went to see the Discovery outstanding and excellent value for money and we attended an excellent performance of Sunshine on Leith.
We enjoyed walking round the pedestrian areas in the city and by Riverside.
We used Dundee as a base from which to explore the surrounding area and found there was much to see within easy travelling distance.
We finished the week with a visit to Dundee Flower and Food Festival. This was a great event with a great array of exhibitions.
The people were enormously friendly and my wife now thinks the weather (it only rained for 10 minutes the whole week) is like that all the time.
The city was almost unrecognisable from 40 years ago and we look forward to returning soon to renew our acquaintance.
Gary Abraham.6a Queens Park Road,Harborne,Birmingham.Market Fife public transportSir, I have, over the years, drawn attention to the lack of co-ordination in the promotion of public transport across Fife.
In north Fife, we enjoy an extremely good range of bus and train services, yet the amount of publicity and promotional effort is minimal.
The route map, once published by Fife Council, has disappeared. Bus stop publicity, while extensive, is difficult to interpret unless you know the services. No timetable booklets are available. Contrast this with Perthshire and Angus where a stranger has access to a wide range of literature directed
towards presenting a network, not isolated routes.
While operators could do more to promote their services, it is worth noting that the major providers across the Tay, Stagecoach and ScotRail are the same in Fife. Why do we not enjoy a similar level of attention as our neighbours?
Now I fear that financial constraints will result in reduced levels of support for public transport with a loss of services. This will be all the more tragic when the routes have not been marketed effectively.
Ken Cameron.11 St Michaels Drive,Cupar.Green threat to Scots economySir, Greenpeace seeks to block drilling for oil in UK waters; meanwhile Perth and Kinross reveals the £1m cost of fighting a David-and-Goliath battle against wind farm planning applications with the Scottish Government.
Green is a relative thing, and there are a lot of hydrocarbons being burned, emissions created and less than eco-friendly transport costs incurred in building steel windmills then transporting them to Perthshire.
Figures suggest that during its lifetime, one 3MW turbine will “save” 6356 tonnes of carbon and “cost” somewhere between 27,213 and 40,773 tonnes of carbon.
In the future, we will have pile-drivers smashing supports into the seabed causing ecological chaos in affected areas within clear view of tourist hotspots such as St Andrews.
Scotland’s greatest asset is its visual amenity. Yet in the rush to become the powerhouse of Europe, we stand to lose all of this.
What future does the Scottish Government (and Greenpeace for that matter), see for people in such areas?
No visitors, who by this time will be discovering the unspoilt scenery of Poland or the Czech Republic, and elevated heating and fuel costs.
What beckons is something akin to the Highland Clearances. There will be no viable means of subsistence in areas where tourism is the only income source.
Iain Mitchell.Hawkhill,Dundee.Barclays banks on public cashSir, Is it ironic, or merely par for the course, that Scottish Enterprise announces a grant of £6.6 million of taxpayers’ cash to Barclays Bank to locate one of its operations in Glasgow on the day before Barclays Bank announces that the well-named Bob Diamond will be its new chief executive (September 7 and 8), with a pay package worth potentially £11 million per annum and who is reported to have already amassed a fortune of £100 million in his 14 years at Barclays?
Would Barclays really have located elsewhere without that sweetener?
John Birkett.12 Horseleys Park,St Andrews.