Sir, – In response to Robin Valentine’s letter (May 31) I would like to correct him when he states that “Perth Concert Hall will never be a successful venue for major conferences as it cannot provide catering under the same roof”.
As our then chief executive, Jane Spiers, pointed out to Mr Valentine through your pages in August 2012, Perth Concert Hall is, in fact, a world-class conference facility equipped to the highest standards.
Our in-house catering team caters for conferences, private dinners and lunches with all food freshly prepared on our premises.
Perth Concert Hall’s spacious Glassrooms Cafe and foyer is frequently commended as the perfect space to break out to for catering and exhibitions.
It is also a popular local meeting place for coffee and snacks as well as lunches and pre-show meals. It is enjoyed by many for its easy access, particularly for prams or wheelchairs.
During 2015, Perth Concert Hall once again, hosted a number of prestigious conferences including the Mountain Studies conference which welcomed and fully catered for 450 delegates from 60 countries as well as the Scottish Labour Party Conference, Educational Institute of Scotland, Age Scotland, NHS, Sport Scotland and more.
The transformed Perth Theatre with its improved access, new spaces and catering facilities will further complement Perth Concert Hall’s conferencing offer, which will indeed, as Mr Valentine suggests, place Perth on the map as Scotland’s centre for conferences.
I would like to reissue Jane Spier’s 2012 invitation to Mr Valentine to come and take a tour of Perth Concert Hall so that he can see what the venue has to offer.
Gwilym Gibbons.
Chief Executive,
Horsecross Arts,
Mill Street,
Perth.
Why risk return of the Open?
Sir, – There seems to be a lack of business confidence in Carnoustie Links Management Committee’s proposed golf centre extension.
The main attraction of the golf courses is the championship course, which during the winter months is restricted to shortened holes, playing off mats, and as of last winter, many weeks -on temporary greens, not to mention major alterations to the course, impeding play. This is not exactly a great advert to entice visitors.
Even at reduced green fees, visitors are not prepared to play the course, whatever status it may have.
This is confirmed by only a few hundred rounds being played through the months of November to February inclusive on the championship course, presenting a major commercial challenge to the existing food and beverage providers, many who already choose to operate restricted hours and services.
This should also be an indication to CGLMC, that there is little or no business during the winter months, making it unlikely that this proposed facility can stay open 12 months of the year, even accepting CGLMC can choose to operate at a loss.
The R&A places significant value on having a hotel at the golf course. This is the number one risk to any future Opens being awarded to Carnoustie. Why then would anyone increase the risk to the hotel by building a competitor on the doorstep?
David Bond.
25 Beech Grove,
Arbroath.
Turbine threat to wildlife
Sir, – The RSPB has suggested that thousands more wind turbines could be built with minimal risk to birds and the countryside.
What nonsense.
The RSPB rationale is that climate change is the greater threat to wildlife.
If that is the case, why is the rest of the world is still burning coal, even Germany which already has more than 22,000 wind turbines?
Are these countries not worrying, or is the UK the only country which believes in climate-change scare stories?
At present the UK has 5,000 wind turbines and the RSPB suggestion that another 25,000 would be needed is environmentally insane.
Already our countryside has been spoiled by wind turbines and another 25,000 would leave it an industrial wasteland.
Birds and bats will be decimated now not as the RSPB claim by climate change in the far, distant future.
Existing turbines spinning at 180mph are neither bird-friendly nor bat-friendly.
It is time for RSPB supporters to realise the damage being done to wildlife and their environment in their name and cancel their subscriptions and direct debits and thus send a strong message to the RSPB executives.
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Road,
Linlithgow.
Tough job for John Swinney
Sir, – I find personal abuse tiresome not just because I am often the subject but because the writer usually has little worth saying as we saw in Jim Robertson’s rant against your weekly columnist Jenny Hjul.
In fact, having been away recently I was about to applaud her excellent article on Scottish education and the significance of the gift of that poisoned chalice to John Swinney by Nicola Sturgeon.
My generation experienced the 1950s heyday of Scottish schools and I owe everything to a system that took me from a mining village primary to elite United Kingdom and US universities.
It is a national disgrace that the only way parents in the village today and in many other areas can obtain for their children that quality of education is to buy it.
Our schools are so poor we have withdrawn from international competition to save face and if Mr Swinney found the economy brief a challenge, this is going to be a lot worse.
Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
Hypocrisy over immigration
Sir, – Last year 330,000 immigrants arrived in Britain.
If these had been qualified civil servants, surveyors, planners, accountants, lawyers, and public-sector officials ready to start work for less than the going rate, immigration laws would be passed immediately.
Malcolm Parkin.
Gamekeepers Road,
Kinnesswood,
Kinross.
EU ruined fishing industry
Sir, – Bob Harper’s letter of May 30 was a mind boggler, exceeding even his boundaries of fiction over fact.
I’m not sure how long Mr Harper has lived in Anstruther, and whether he experienced the reality of the fishing businesses in Anstruther, Pittenweem and St Monans prior to the United Kingdom joining the European Union in the 1970s.
The European Union now is in overall charge of the UK inshore fishing limits and neither the UK nor the Scottish Government can impose national conservation measures without EU approval.
Joining the EU in the 1970s progressively ruined the livelihoods of many East Neuk fishing families.
Anstruther harbour is now a berth only for leisure yachts.
Pittenweem fish market is now no more
St Monans catches only small amounts of shellfish and its long-established builder of traditional inshore fishing boats is no more.
If the UK left the EU, Scotland would once again benefit from exclusive fishing zones under control of the UK Government.
His continuing assertions that Scotland should be “independent in its own right” are simply unfeasible.
Modern history of Europe shows quite clearly that small nation states need to belong to a union of sorts.
It seems to me to be better to be in the UK union than in the EU that is in an economic and political mess that is unlikely to be resolved in the foreseeable future.
Derek Farmer.
Knightsward Farm,
Anstruther.
Take care of Scots people
Sir, – The SNP is looking for plaudits for accepting 610 Syrian refugees into Scotland.
While the party’s actions may seem laudable, accepting, these people means pushing 610 homeless people here further down the waiting list.
The SNP needs to step back from trying to be world politicians and concentrate on the job it was elected to do: improve Scotland for its indigenous population.
As a lifelong member and supporter of the SNP, before politicians bring in more mouths to feed, they should eradicate homelessness and child poverty and get rid of the need for people here in Scotland to depend on foodbanks for survival.
T Gardner.
Main Street,
Bankfoot.