Sir, As a regular visitor to Perth through family connections I am dismayed at the proposal by Perth and Kinross Council to pull the City Hall down and create an open plaza.
Memories in Perth appear to be short. In the past 12 months, both Historic Scotland and Perth and Kinross Council have received some 2,500 email messages from all over the world regarding the proposed demolition. Of those, approximately 2,450 were in opposition to the demolition of the hall.
About 100 years ago the design of the hall was an open competition and the outstanding result was selected, built and became one of the finest civic buildings in Scotland.
In more recent times another open design competition was held in Sydney Australia resulting in the outstanding Opera House. Can you imagine that perhaps in another 100 years all the Sydney elected members would stop taking bookings and decide to take it down to make an open windswept space?
How many email messages do you think they would receive or would common sense prevail and the elected members retain it?
I certainly hope that the current elected members can see common sense and give the building a deserved new lease of life. There is a very viable proposal on the table, which would not only retain much of the building but also add to Perth’s cachet as a Cittaslow city, the charter of which Perth is subscribed to and which can be found on the PKC website.
The first two points of the charter are:
* A policy is in place to help maintain and develop the distinctiveness and characteristics of the town and the surrounding area. Regeneration and re-use are priorities, rather than modernisation and redevelopment for the sake of change.
* A policy on the built environment encourages enhancement of the area rather than development that is insensitive to history, tradition and the needs of people.
It seems to me that PKC are going against their own policies.
Ms R Groeninx van Zoelen. Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Need to face up to threat
Sir, It is easy to see that your correspondents are losing the argument when they try to vilify environmentalists Dan Arnott, “The efforts of the green zealots are futile”, and Clark Cross, “Too many on the gravy train” (both in Letters, January 15).
Are they similarly dismissive of the chief executive of Sepa and the Scottish Government Minister for the Environment, who have announced the publication of new maps to help Scotland face up to the threat of increased flooding in the 21st century? (“New Maps Show Flood Risk”, January 16)
Clark Cross asserts that there has been no increased frequency of cyclonic activity, but ignores the much increased severity of weather events, from cyclones in the Philippines to heat waves in Australia and heavy rainfall in the UK. In your report, the Minister for the Environment says we need to be better prepared for more frequent extreme weather events.
Fortunately the Scottish Government, Sepa and local authorities are taking the threat of disruptive climate change more seriously than Messrs Cross and Arnott.
Indeed, as The Courier reported last August, Dundee City Council is trying to find £36m to protect the city from the increased risk of flooding from violent storms and rising sea levels, a risk clearly illustrated on the new maps.
Andrew Llanwarne. Co-ordinator, Friends of the Earth Tayside, 8 Glasclune Way, Broughty Ferry.
Just a waste of money
Sir, Edinburgh councillors are planning to introduce a 20mph speed limit on all roads within the city centre area by 2017. I have yet to find a road in Edinburgh where it is possible to even reach 20mph and with the forthcoming Edinburgh trams, accompanied by the obvious increase in traffic, it will become an absolute impossibility, so why spend money on such projects?
John McDonald. 14 Rosebery Court, Kirkcaldy.
Already been looked at
Sir, What action is needed to prevent further accidents and fatalities on the A92 from Glenrothes right up to the Tay Road Bridge (Courier, January 17)?
I think we can all broadly support Councillor Andy Heer’s plea for an appraisal of the various hazards that exist along the thoroughfare. Yet I have the feeling that this has already been looked at in depth over the years by the Scottish Parliament’s public petitions committee.
It would still be useful for Transport Scotland to outline just what surveys and safety measures have been introduced on the road over the last decade.
More attention to the problems caused by the plethora of side roads and junctions is vital. This is likely to be more productive than the pleas for dualling of the road from Preston roundabout in Glenrothes to the Bridge.
In public life there needs to be vision. But there is no realistic prospect of that being achieved in the lifetime of most readers of this newspaper. Leaving aside the public expenditure implications, there are so many property interests that it would take years of inquiries to overcome them.
We are still entitled to know that safety on the route is being taken seriously. Transport minister Keith Brown should act now to reassure everyone.
Bob Taylor. 24 Shiel Court, Glenrothes.