Sir, – With reference to your articles about the row over a planning application to build on open land at Gotterstone, Dundee, anyone who thinks that open spaces are safe in a modern Scottish city should take a trip to East Kilbride.
I went there in 1970 for my first IT job when the new town was expanding under the aegis of the East Kilbride Development Corporation.
Open spaces and development coexisted in a town full of promise.
Bit by bit, expansion took the town outwards and towards its population target of around 100,000 people.
In 1996 the development corporation was wound up.
Control of development then passed from professionals to politicians.
A blizzard of building followed. The parks remain but one by one small, open spaces have disappeared.
Don’t take my word for it. Go and have a look for yourselves. The A9 and the motorway network will take you from Dundee to the A725 which reaches East Kilbride at the famous Whirlies roundabout.
Only in London (where I grew up) have I seen new dwellings built so close to a busy intersection.
It is not all the fault of our town planners. The post-war Town and Country Planning Act gave Britain a planning regime that was the envy of Europe.
But the planners are under siege from both politicians and developers.
As manufacturing industry falters there is brownfield land available but developers don’t like brownfield land; it costs money to clear and to decontaminate.
Protecting Dundee’s open spaces is going to need more than the efforts of local campaign groups. It is a task for the whole city.
Jeremy Schmid.
218 Broughty Ferry Road,
Dundee.
United must go for quality
Sir, – This season has been a horrendous one for Dundee United with chairman, coach and players sharing the blame.
Maybe a white knight will appear, prepared and able, to invest sufficient funding to steady the club and eventually lead to fan ownership.
United must start to believe in themselves again, giving several young players a chance to shine in the championship and at the same time bringing in the players necessary to tighten up the defence and cut out many of the unforced errors they were prone to last season.
The championship will not be easy to win next season with competition from Hibs and several clubs who have featured at various times in the top flight.
Fans can start the revival process and show their confidence in the club by purchasing season tickets now, providing the financial base needed to recruit the necessary players for this to happen.
As a regular purchaser of the club programme, I was struck by the fact that the number of squad players listed by United was far in excess of most clubs.
Dundee, for example, listed 29 while Dundee United listed 44. Quality over quantity is surely the way forward.
Bill Watson.
Seaview Avenue,
Arbroath.
Seedier side of Dundee
Sir, – When in town I noticed the nicer side of Dundee with the clean streets and lots of green spaces where one can sit and relax.
Unfortunately, these attractive areas are also attractive to smokers who cannot go without a fag for more than 10 minutes.
People lie on the grass outside the city churches, hiding the alcohol in various ways and smoking and vaping the air blue.
Despite CCTV supposedly looking down on them, the seedier side of life, the drug abusers and drinkers, emerges as it does in other cities in the UK.
Another intrusion is the lack of control of the number of chuggers.
It is almost impossible to walk along Murraygate without being approached twice or three times by these awkwardly-animated people standing in front of you.
I recently arrived at Dundee railway station and by the time I reached Reform Street I had encountered three Big Issue sellers and four beggars.
I’m afraid, despite the coming of the V&A, two universities, the botanic gardens, beautiful riverside walks and so much more, many visitors will leave with a poor first impression of Dundee.
Arthur Gall.
14d Pitalpin Court,
Dundee.
Own up to bridge failings
Sir, – Derek Mackay, our now former Transport Minister, demanded power over railways to be devolved to Scotland because of the “debacle” caused by the threatened postponement of the Flying Scotsman’s visit to Fife. Where does he, or his successor, stand on the catastrophic actual closure of the Forth Road Bridge for two months?
Will Mr Mackay or his government take responsibility for the closure?
Charles Wilson.
King’s Road,
Rosyth.
Giant hole in energy supply
Sir, – The closure of Cockenzie and Longannet coal-fired power stations has taken 3,600 megawatts out of Scotland’s base-load generating capacity.
But not to worry; our politicians have it all in hand.
According to your report of May 16, our politicians are planning to build to build a 30-megawatt offshore windfarm.
It would need 120 such installations to compensate for Cockenzie and Longannet and that, of course, is assuming the wind will always blow at the right speeds.
That is what happens when you expect untrained schoolkids to do grown-ups’ work.
Jim Parker.
9 Banchory Green, Collydean,
Glenrothes.
We must have sensible debate
Sir, – There has been a lot of debate on Brexit, most telling us if we vote for it we will be visited by a plague of some sort or even another war.
So I thought maybe we should first look at the pros and cons of EU membership which the politicians do not want to talk about.
We are all in the same common market so business is equal for all. We have the freedom to go and live or work anywhere within the EU and most of the EU politicians are democratically elected.
Some bad bits include being controlled by unelected eurocrats. We have lost some of our sovereignty and some countries do not apply EU laws.
I am sure there are lots of people who can add more good bits as well as bad bits.
I really do hope we can start a sensible debate which, so far, the politicians have been unable to do.
Derek H Shaw.
17 The Logan,
Liff.
Why was crime not spotted?
Sir, – Law-abiding citizens will be aghast that the criminal fraternity has, for the fifth time, removed lead from the roof of Coldside Church in Dundee.
Anyone familiar with church finances knows that the burden to maintain the property falls on the shoulders of dwindling, often elderly, congregations.
As a Christian, while I admire the minister’s concern for the safety of the thieves as they remove the lead from his church, I am sure his parishioners will think otherwise.
It amazes me that with the church surrounded and overlooked by commercial properties and housing and occasionally passed by the police, that no one noticed the crime.
RHL Mulheron.
28 Cowgate,
Tayport.
Immature act by Green MSP
Sir, – You used a photo of Green Party MSP Ross Greer with a clenched fist when taking the oath in the Scottish Parliament. Why promote such a derogatory act?
The Black Panthers, who used this symbol, were formed in California in the mid 1960s for many reasons, some correct, and some not so.
However, Mr Greer has no idea about the background nor was he around when this type of segregation took place.
We are one nation today after a vote and will stay as one until there is another vote which I assume will be inevitable. Until then the Queen is our head of state and needs to be treated as such, not subjected to an idiotic gesture.
If he did not want to take the oath he should have resigned and let some other more mature and competent politician take his place.
Green protestors have done little for the overall good of Scotland.
George Sangster.
Woodlands,
Logie,
Craigo.