Today our correspondents discuss providing support to younger people, making space for caravans and caravaners, the nation’s decline and treating travellers with humanity.
Church support for grieving Dundee youths Sir, The tragic loss of so many youths in Dundee recently has left people questioning what support young people are being given.
Dundee’s youths have pulled together to support each other but what people do not see is the support that is also being given by youth groups and other agencies.
All young people should be aware of the support out there and people’s attempts at helping them should not be snubbed by those who have clearly not seen first hand what is being done (August 5).
Churches happily open their doors to people of any age, sexuality and class. Their support may branch out to Palestinians but they would never turn away a young person.
It is the 21st century and as a 17-year-old girl, my friends and family would be who I would turn to for support.
Most teenagers would do the same and would not go to a church to find answers. Therefore, perhaps because the young people of today are reluctant to turn to a church, it gives the impression that the churches do not help or support youths.
One place where this support is overwhelming is Hot Chocolate. A youth group that I attend, Hot Chocolate, is in the Steeple Church and over the past few weeks has enveloped its attending youths with the message that they are there to help and that there is hope.
Hot Chocolate leaders have given us a place to release our grief and they have helped us through the recent tragedy that hit us.
Emma Lawrence.Hot Chocolate Trust,Dundee.
Make space for caravans
Sir, I would like to make a plea on behalf of caravanners for the provision of temporary respite areas for overnight or short breaks.
With the increase in families spending holidays in the UK, caravanning is becoming as popular here as in the Netherlands, with more and more people taking advantage of exploring their homeland.
I believe it would be of significant advantage to provide a few stopping places within the vast areas of parking set aside for out-of-town shopping centres and supermarkets.
The ability to stop for a few hours or rest overnight would be a huge blessing and contribute to road safety.
Having these stopping places would encourage tired drivers to rest and allow them to unhitch their van to enable them to fill up with fuel without towing the trailer around pump islands.
The double spaces need not make a significant difference to the capacity of a car park but this would require private and public sector co-operation.
Alan Bell.Roods,Kirriemuir.
A country in decline
Sir, The Great has long since gone out of Britain. Almost everything in this country now seems to operate contrary to common sense.
Our health service, schools, universities, courts, prisons, police force, social services, councils, fishing, agriculture, even our sources of power seem to be sinking under an ever-increasing weight of bureaucracy.
Unfortunately, the establishment and a large following of the gullible and gormless seem to see nothing wrong. Our public servants cannot do their jobs properly because of the increasing mound of paperwork and regulations.
Fishermen are not allowed to fish much of the time, farmers are not allowed to farm as they wish, while they face increasing unfair competition from the EU and further afield.
Impending power cuts and shortages stare us in the face but our Coalition Government tells us nuclear power is not a priority and that wind and wave power is the way forward.
Meanwhile, our parliament in Edinburgh will not even contemplate nuclear power. This in the teeth of growing evidence that nuclear power is the only option which will save the UK from power cuts and economic disaster. What has gone wrong with Britain?
We were once renowned for our enterprise, our inventors, our brilliant engineers and administrators.
George K. McMillan.5 Mount Tabor Avenue,Perth.
Treat travellers with humanity
Sir, I read the article on how Montrose intends to tackle the problem they have had in their area from travellers.
While I fully understand that there is a problem, I cannot believe that blocking access to potential pull-off sites is anything but a temporary solution.
Two things strike me as necessary to resolve this perennial matter.
The first, and long-term solution, has to be the provision of enough sites for both local resident travellers and for those who are itinerant.
The Coalition Government has just withdrawn funding for traveller sites in England, a retrograde step because there are nowhere near enough sites and even where the travellers own land, they are not being given planning permission.
I hope that our Scottish Government is rather more positive. But unless, and until, sufficient provision is made for them, travelling travellers will always be a “problem” because they have to have somewhere to park.
Shuffling them on from unauthorised site to unauthorised site cannot be the answer, from any point of view.
The second point I wonder about is this. How much discussion has ever been held between the council and the travellers themselves?
These are not aliens from Mars. They are fellow human beings, living in a largely traditional way, the majority of whom are pretty decent, in my experience.
Perhaps if they were brought into discussions instead of being treated as outcasts, a way forward could be reached.
David R. Grant.Balintore,Kirriemuir.
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