Sir, As a retired council officer who worked on the development of Dundee Airport for many years, I offer the following perspective on the Dundee- London air service.
In 1999 we obtained a London service that has remained basically the same for the last 15 years 31-seat Dornier 328’s running into London City airport.
Two elements of this format have ended up as straitjackets. Firstly the 31-seat aircraft has to recover high cost overheads from a small number of passengers and secondly London City Airport’s user fees have become astronomical and far worse than some alternatives.
A partial answer would have been to introduce larger aircraft, but aircraft changes are risky for a small airline and ScotAirways never managed to achieve it.
Cityjet then took over the route in 2007 by leasing the same ScotAirways aircraft, but it proved unwilling to implement the only other potential cure which would have been to send the aircraft to a cheaper London airport.
The loss of a service is a very serious matter. It is desperately difficult to obtain a new operator during a recession, but the Government’s willingness to offer Public Service Obligation support should now overcome that.
Critically, a PSO provides an opportunity through the tender specification for local views to influence the nature, timing and cost of the new service something that on every other occasion has been the prerogative of an airline.
We’ll see what emerges from the tendering process, but if a new service is well conceived, well operated, and well marketed, there would appear to be every chance of future success.
It takes time to rebuild confidence, but if we can get a new London service to be a success, other route opportunities may well then start to open up.
Gordon Fleming. 2 St Nicholas Place, Dundee.
How much gas is recoverable?
Sir, In response to Clark Cross’s letter of January 6, 2014, I think it is worthwhile pointing out some inaccuracies. In Europe there are actually nine countries with bans or moratoria relating to unconventional gas extraction at either national or state level, including France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland.
Mr Cross states that the UK has 141 years’ worth of gas, but it is not clear what his source for this is.
The recent much publicised study by the British Geological Survey looked at the amount of shale gas in Lancashire, and came up with some pretty impressive figures. Drowned out in the media hype at the time, however, was the fact that the report made no estimate of how much of this gas is actually recoverable.
For this, it’s worth going back to a 2010 study by the BGS which looked at how much shale gas there was across the whole of the UK, and estimated how much it might be possible to extract, suggesting we might be looking at as little as 1.5 years at current consumption rates.
Leading economist Lord Stern has pointed out that claims fracking will lead to reduced consumer gas prices are “baseless economics”. Interestingly, this is even backed up by Lord John Brown (part owner of fracking company Cuadrilla) who agrees that the UK will not see anything like the financial benefits experienced in the US, so if Mr Cross is looking forward to a ‘shale gas led economic recovery’ he will be sorely disappointed.
Friends of the Earth Scotland’s concern is not that we are running out of fossil fuels. Our concern is that burning proven resources will lead to catastrophic climate change. This makes exploring for new sources of fossil fuels in Scotland reckless and we haven’t even covered the emerging evidence of impacts on health, soil and air!
Paul Daly. Energy Campaigner, FoE Scotland, Edinburgh.
We need to know plan B
Sir, One question that needs to be answered should Scotland become independent, concerns the long-term relationship with RM Condor, the base of 45 Commando Royal Marines, Arbroath, which may come to an end.
The base has played an integral part between the people of Arbroath and surrounding areas for decades, many relationships having been forged over the years. The knock-on effect of this separation would have serious implications.
There would be job losses for civilians connected to the base and tradesman employed to carry out work at both the base and living accommodation may well be affected, not to mention retail outlets.
In view of these potential pitfalls, is it not time for both our local MSP and our Westminster MP to inform us as to what plan B would be should independence come about?
Douglas Hamilton. 71 Parkview Gardens, Arbroath.
Rhetoric is all very well . . .
Sir, Nicola Sturgeon is using a common rhetorical device in demanding positivity from the “No” campaign. By contrast, justification of the status quo doesn’t feature much in everyday life.
For instance, in deciding to go away on holiday one focuses on the benefits of the change; if there are too few of them or too many dis-benefits, the status quo will prevail without having to be justified. And as a general principle, the more uncertain the benefits of a new course of action, the greater the impetus to default to the status quo.
Rhetoric is all very well as long as the electorate aren’t distracted from the fact that the burden of proof rests with those advocating change. We’re still a long way from that burden being discharged in relation to independence.
R A Wallace. 9 Standalane, Kincardine on Forth.