Our last letters of the year discuss the difficulties facing mountain rescue teams, the plight of homeowners facing boiler breakdowns and the criticism of cleanliness at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. Poverty and the postal service are also still on correspondents’ minds.
Unfairness of tax on free life-saving service
Sir,-The Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland (MRCofS), which is the representative and liaison organisation for mountain rescue services in Scotland, thanks The Courier for highlighting the anomaly of unpaid volunteer mountain rescue teams having to pay VAT on equipment to provide a service free of charge to the statutory authorities.
The letter from Falkirk West MSP Michael Matheson to Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, detailed in the article, is an important indication of support for VAT relief to mountain rescue teams and the MRCofS thanks Mr Matheson for his initiative, which will add weight to the ongoing campaign the MRCofS together with colleagues south of the border have been undertaking.
The MRCofS would point out that the organisation has 26 civilian volunteer member teams, not 12 as mentioned in the article, comprised of some 1000 persons who are on call 24 hours every day to provide help without charge, to anyone who may be in need of assistance in mountainous or otherwise inhospitable terrain.
The MRCofS acknowledges with gratitude the support its member organisations receives from donor organisations, as well as members of the public.
Alfie Ingram.Chair,Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland,12 Hazel Avenue, Dundee.
Use law over boiler failures
Sir,-Imagine if a salesman came to your house and sold you a car. Later, you discover that if you drive the car at more than 40mph, the wheels will come off.
Clearly that item is unsuitable for its purpose and in breach of consumer-protection legislation.
Imagine if you bought a condensing boiler to provide central heating. Later, you discover that it freezes up if the temperature drops below average.
Temperatures of below average are not unknown as they are needed to calculate average temperatures.
I bought a condensing boiler some months ago and, so far, it has not frozen like many other cases you have reported.
If this does happen, I will be pursuing my supplier using consumer protection legislation.
R. R. Shaw.156 Alexander Road,Glenrothes.
Standards are unacceptable
Sir,-Gerry Marr, head of NHS Tayside, expressed his disappointment with the reported findings of unacceptable hygiene and infection control practices in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, following a recent unannounced Healthcare Environment Inspectorate inspection.
Mr Marr should be ashamed of himself. The inspectors discovered that faults uncovered during a previous visit to Ninewells during a C. difficile outbreak in 2009 had not been addressed.
There was strong criticism of the infection control and management leadership and the unsatisfactory board-to-ward pathways of communication.
Mr Marr sits on Government NHS Quality Improvement Committees. The Hospital Environment Inspectors are a part of Quality Improvement Scotland.
Perhaps Mr Marr should instead now apply himself to some desperately needed proper leadership and management in his own hospitals.
Jennifer Helen Allan. 18 Grangehill Drive,Monifieth.
Mankind can escape poverty
Sir,-In his Christmas Day sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, overlooked one of the defining notions of Christianity that all human beings are capable of moral choice.
All of us can choose to be honest rather than fiddle the system if healthy to work rather than take charity and to have children only if we can support them.
Instead, Dr Williams accepted the Marxist analysis that the poor are not responsible for their circumstances but are, instead, helpless tools of the capitalist system.
I hesitate to accuse so eminent a theologian of moral confusion but William Beveridge, founder of the welfare state said that such a view treats the poor as less than human.
Dr Williams’ non-judgmental view of poverty leaves the poor stranded and it is this woeful state of affairs that Iain Duncan Smith is determined to end.
(Dr) John Cameron.10 Howard Place,St Andrews.
Paralysis of postal service
Sir,-I have read with utter frustration your reports about the meltdown of postal services from Dundee East delivery office.
We have been told many times that they were working to resolve the problems.
Clearly they are a long way from being resolved. The onset of bad weather presented a wonderful excuse to cover the ongoing paralysis of the post in this area.
I wrote to our MP and saw that he, too, was given the meaningless statements that they would resolve the problems.
We only received two deliveries of mail last week, on Monday and Wednesday.
Most businesses have two days’ statutory holiday at Christmas.
Large stores opened again on Boxing Day. The Courier was published.
Adding insult to injury, we were told that postal staff were only going to return to work on Wednesday, December 29.
Ronald Goodfellow.Bogles Wood,6 Elmgrove Park,Monikie.
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.