Sir, I fully concur with the sentiments of Roy Bayne (January 30), especially with regard to the doubling of the cost of a lottery line.
I am chairman of our village hall committee and we have embarked on an urgent fund-raising venture to address much-needed storage and meeting space, but most importantly structural issues affecting the roof and an outside wall.The first port of call in pursuing the professionally estimated cost of £100,000 plus VAT, to enable the required works to be undertaken, had to be the Big Lottery Fund.
We received a quick response stating the scheme which may have addressed our situation had closed down in December 2012 and it was not known when a similar type of funding programme would be installed.
Am I wrong in thinking that one of the objectives of the lottery was to fund community projects in order to allow start-up and continuation of new and existing facilities, for the betterment and support in areas where improvements in social well-being and education amongst other things can make a difference?
The Olympics in London are over. It was the whole of the UK, not just the south-east of England, where funding for that project was raised, so is it asking too much to allow a village hall which is used every day by a pre-school playgroup, a drama group, a keep fit group, pensioners etc, to be able to exist for more than its already crumbling 60 years?
Perhaps the doubling of the cost of a lottery line will help projects like ours to come to fruition, or will it perhaps just further line the pockets of Camelot?
I can’t help but wonder about how much better in terms of public benefit the lottery may have been in the hands of, say, Richard Branson.
Geoff Bray. Chairman, Letham Village Hall, Heather Croft, Letham, Forfar.
It’s an insult to young people in our schools
Sir, I write to express my concern at the behaviour of Dundee city councillors at the policy and resources committee meeting on Monday evening, as reported in Wednesday’s Courier.
One councillor described the meeting as “playground politics”.That is an insult to the young people in our schools who certainly behave in a more democratic and civilised way in public debate.
At a time when many people in business, in the two universities, in the cultural life of Dundee and indeed, we at the High School of Dundee are working extremely hard to move this fine city forwards, it is crucial that all elements of the community work together productively and see the big picture.
The spectacle of certain of our elected representatives engaging in tiresome and bloody-minded party political posturing is dispiriting in the extreme.
Come on ladies and gentlemen, show some sense of intelligent and responsible leadership, for goodness’ sake!
Dr John D Halliday. Rector, High School of Dundee.
Not the best use of money
Sir, A visitor centre on the Isle of May? (Courier, January 30). Is that the best of thinking?
An outlay of public money and the island is closed for at least half the year? Come on, think!
Would it not make more sense to have a visitor centre on the mainland, say at Cellardyke or Anstruther?
A lot of people would not be happy about going on a boat anyway, the elderly, sea-sick sufferers, families with very young children etc, so a visitor centre on the mainland would be of benefit to a lot more people, all year round.
While on the subject of the Isle of May, could binoculars not be installed at various sites that have a view of the island? There has also been talk of a video link before, could that not be back on the table?
Public money could be far better spent in a variety of ways rather than on a visitor centre on the island.
Over to the powers that be.
Roy McIntosh. 9 Bankwell Road, Anstruther.
Trying to turn clock back
Sir, This government seems to be trying to turn the clock back a hundred years.
A Tory MP now wants benefit recipients to be paid via a card which would not allow them to spend their money on booze, gambling, and tobacco.
Piously, he says he “is trying to help the poor”.
He omits to mention that the idea seems to have originated with the Mastercard Corporation who would obviously benefit immensely from the public purse.
The Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, similarly equates poverty with moral bankruptcy, as the Victorians did, when he says giving the poor more money simply encourages their feckless lifestyle.
Mr Smith (salary £2,500 a week plus expenses from the public purse) says the “causes of poverty cannot be solved by giving poor people a few more pounds each week”, and I agree with him.
The causes of poverty, however, can be solved by giving poor people many more pounds each week!
The government should have the backbone to stop attacking the poor and weak and have the courage to make the rich and powerful shoulder their fair share of the austerity burden.
George Dobbie. 51 Airlie Street, Alyth.