This morning’s letters focus on ‘rip-off’ fuel prices, biomass technology, the treatment of cyclists, and the future of retail.
Fuel-price rip-off hitting entire Scots economy
Sir,- I write as probably one of the very many of your readers who applaud The Courier’s Fight for Fairer Fuel Campaign.
I am glad to see that among those who support you are Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney MSP and First Minister Alex Salmond.
Mr Salmond pointed out that it is unbelievable that those living in what is the second-largest oil producer in Europe should be facing the highest prices at the pumps.
Even Norway, one of the most expensive countries in the world, is just marginally more expensive. But Norway ploughs much of its oil profits into maintaining roads.
And Bermuda in the north-western Atlantic, only 21 square miles in total land area, with no oil at all and 600 miles from the US coast, charges less than UK prices.
The price of fuel is a UK Government rip-off with damaging repercussions for Scotland’s key industries and housing.
I am afraid the hopes that David Cameron would quickly become a good and popular Prime Minister have been dashed.
Keith Forbes.Tigh na Craig,Hatton Road,Blairgowrie.
Biomass equals coal emissions
Sir,-In his article (January 24) responding to John J. Marshall’s earlier opinion column, Calum Wilson, managing director of Forth Energy, is somewhat disingenuous when he talks about carbon dioxide emissions.
Once again, he claims that his plant will “generate 80 to 90% less carbon dioxide” than would a traditional, coal-fired power station.
It is well known that the actual flue gas from the proposed biomass plant will contain as much, if not more, CO2 locally in Dundee than would a coal-fired unit. After all, both units involve the burning of a carbon-based fuel.
His claim assumes that the reduction in CO2 emissions will result from the absorption of CO2 during the growth cycle of the biomass fuel, wherever it is grown. Can he please confirm that this is indeed the case and that the quantity of CO2 emitted by the Dundee plant (as a standalone facility) will be similar to that emitted by a coal-fired unit?
G. M. Lindsay.Whinfield Gardens,Kinross.
Get tough on danger drivers
Sir,-Your recent series of letters regarding cycling on the pavement would have the reader thinking that every pavement was over-run by maniac cyclists. I’d suggest that this is another example of people wildly exaggerating to support an otherwise trivial point.
Just because you occasionally meet a bike on a pavement doesn’t mean that all cyclists ride on it and, as has been pointed out previously, many people don’t feel safe riding on the road in some circumstances.
Do people seriously think that the police should spend hours scouring the streets in search of anyone who may riding on the pavement and give them a telling off? If they were to also enforce all the other traffic laws to the same extent, they would do nothing else and the country would be brought to a standstill.
Some of your correspondents need a reality check on the priorities of law enforcement.
Look at the statistics for death and serious injuries where cyclists have hit pedestrians compared with motorists hitting cyclists and it will put this issue into perspective. We do need law enforcement and a change in the law to protect the most vulnerable road users cyclists.
The UK needs to adopt the system used in other European countries where the motorist is presumed to be at fault unless proven otherwise.
As a society, we seem incapable of respecting other road users and the aggressive and dangerous driving towards cyclists in particular needs to be addressed.
You wouldn’t push someone out of your way on the pavement because it took a few moments to get past them, so why do people behave like that behind the wheel with no thought for the safety of others? This issue will not solve itself without the courts taking dangerous driving seriously.
Grahame Hay.51 Craigie Road,Perth.
Cash no answer to ailing centres
Sir,-Since it seems generally accepted that car-friendly retail parks and superstores have been instrumental in the decline of town centres and smaller shops, it is surely ironic that improvements intended to revitalise such areas seem to be fundamentally pro-pedestrian and anti-car.
Thus, recent correspondence regarding parking difficulties and the detrimental effect this has had on shopping in Coupar Angus seems to reflect similar concerns following comparable work done on Lochee High Street, Dundee.
Of course, many people without access to a car welcome such improvements, although the blurring of the road/pavement divide and the consequent tendency of some of those on foot to treat such areas as a pedestrian precinct is one reason I avoid driving in them if at all possible.
But, from the wider perspective, it seems arguable that this regeneration is detrimental to rather than of assistance to adjacent shops.
No doubt many will dismiss the above as the typical car driver’s perspective.
However, even living in an area with plenty of smaller shops and indeed less than a mile from Dundee city centre I actually walk several miles several times a week to out-of-town superstores to do most of my shopping.
Which perhaps underlines that the market trends responsible for the problems besetting the more traditional retail sector will not be turned around merely by throwing money at so-called regeneration schemes, irrespective of the car issue.
Stuart Winton.Hilltown,Dundee.
Get involved: to have your say on these or any other topics, email your letter to letters@thecourier.co.uk or send to Letters Editor, The Courier, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL.