Sir, Re, Kengo Kuma still keen on inland V&A, Courier, December 13. As predicted, the V&A move is going ahead, but now with the blessings of the architect.
The architect, who obviously has a vested interest in a smooth outcome, has now decided his design on water was not really that good after all, in fact he now thinks “It is a kind of improvement on the design” to bring it on shore.
It doesn’t seem to matter that he sold us and won the contract with his V&A on the Tay design. It is not a matter of what is cheapest or most convenient to construct. It is a matter of the public being duped.
After being offered the opportunity to have a say in what the Dundee waterfront will look like in the future, only then to be ignored and denied their choice.
This is a strange kind of democracy when we can have our say, but it is ignored.
I note it was “the project’s partners” who decided it should not be sited out into the Tay, not the Dundee public, with the public being given no opportunity or voice in the final decision.
No matter that the waterfront belongs to the public and we will have to live with the traffic chaos of having the V&A and the new railway station, also Discovery Point, the new baths, Dock Street traffic from the east, the Tay Road Bridge traffic from the south, and Riverside Drive traffic from the west, all converging in the same area.
The area where we were promised a marina and green open space, designed to connect the city centre with the river.
Is this what we call an “organic relationship” or is it a change of plans to accommodate mistakes in costing, completion dates and over ambitious building design?
Arthur Gall. 14D Pitalpin Court, Dundee.
Great potential for city centre
Sir, Your recent reports of developers’ plans for the revival and new uses for our City Hall are most encouraging, since it is one of the great remaining architectural assets of the Fair City, with the potential to revive retail in the city centre.
The opportunity for placing an upgraded and extended tourist information centre, restored from its present impractical remote setting, out of reach to visitors arriving in the centre of the city, is particularly relevant.
The Perth City Market Trust’s ideas for fresh food sales, all week round, likewise promise extra vitality to the redeveloped hall and, as aired in your columns many times, the revival of the City Hall offers very many opportunities for restoration of local functions it used to house, country dancing, music etc.
Those in Perth and Kinross Council seeking the very expensive demolition of our hall, with inevitable business-destroying mayhem, probably for years, should recall that a large majority of our fellow-citizens oppose that and their crazy scheme for a Mediterranian-style piazza.
Civic squares elsewhere, eg Edinburgh, Dundee, in rainy, windswept Scotland do not fulfil the pipedreams of their proponents.
Moreover, the council are elected to expedite the wishes of the voters, not exercise their own prejudices and, indeed, dopey schemes!
Isabel & Charles Wardrop. 111 Viewlands Road West, Perth.
Who would you believe? Sir, If ever they decide to remake Alice in Wonderland I feel Nicola Sturgeon would make a suitable candidate for the part of Alice. The so-called Justice Secretary would be ideal as “the Mad Hatter” but, sadly, there would be no role big enough for Mr Salmond’s ego.
The European Union President has declared that if Scotland became independent we would have to apply for membership with all its attendant rules including having to join the Euro currency. Not so, says Miss Sturgeon.
Who are we to believe? A man who is at the absolute centre of Europe or an MSP who tried to alter the course of justice by writing directly to a judge on behalf of one of her constituents who was awaiting sentence on a serious matter?
I rest my case!
Robert Finlay. 6 Greenmount Drive, Burntisland.
Don’t let NHS be destroyed
Sir, I am writing to ask you to use your influence to prevent the NHS from going the way of the dysfunctional system of healthcare in the USA. No system or organisation that cares more about profit and pleasing shareholders can be trusted to take care of people who are sick and have no other source of help.
Don’t let greed ruin the decades of blood sweat and tears of the dedicated NHS staff who built the system. Don’t let the force of capitalism take advantage of the trillions of pounds invested by common people over the years.
David Flounders. 20 Abbey Park, Auchterarder.
Really grateful
Sir, I am very grateful to the NHS as I would never have been able to pay for the operations I have had throughout my life. I have had a lower back operation and two knee replacements for which I shall always be eternally grateful.
Margaret McGhee. 49 Provost’s Walk, Monifieth.