Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir, – I read with some interest about Labour councillor Pat Callaghan’s Damascene conversion to the introduction of parking charges at train station car parks.
When this was previously discussed at the South West Fife Area Committee in December 2007, the committee including myself, Cllr Callaghan and Cllr Bobby Clelland, the current Labour chair of the committee voted unanimously against the introduction of the proposed charges.
The key argument made by myself and others at that time are just as valid now that introducing charges will simply result in people parking in residential areas near to the stations.
This should be of particular concern to residents around Rosyth station, which I believe will be one affected in this way.
Cllr Callaghan’s plans, though, go further than those proposed in 2007 by including both Ferrytoll and the proposed Halbeath park-and-ride sites.
However, he has failed to explain exactly why he now wants to introduce these charges.
He has also failed to note that, by introducing charges, there will be additional cost to the council in both introducing payment methods and policing these schemes.
Fife Council should be encouraging people to use public transport, not attempting to introduce a further £600 per year on top of already sky-high train fares.
I firmly believed that these plans were wrong when they were proposed in 2007. They are just as wrong now.
Keith Legg.Former Liberal Democrat councillor, Rosyth and North Queensferry.Dalgety Bay.
Is there a lesson to be learned here?
Sir, – We have just returned from a lovely two-week holiday in the Dumfries and Galloway and Borders council areas of Scotland and guess what?
None of the towns we visited had charges on their car parks.
Some areas operated a disc system which seemed to work very well. Result busy streets and very few empty shops.
Think there is a message there for our council?
Sheena Johnston.Methven,Perthshire.
It used to be so precious
Sir, – I was saddened by the sight of the bodies of around 17 pilot whales stranded on the shore of the East Neuk of Fife over the first September weekend. I was saddened, too, by the news that they were being taken away to be cremated.
There was a time when these bodies would have been fallen upon and carefully distributed amongst the great and the good in the land to be used as a source of food and oil, as the following 12th century royal charters show:
Between 1141 and 1147 King David I confirmed to Holyrood Abbey (Edinburgh) the tenth of all whales and beasts of the sea (probably including seals) delivered to the king from the River Avon (West Lothian) as far as Cockburnspath (on the East Lothian/Berwickshire border).
Between 1154 and 1159 King Malcolm IV granted to Dunfermline Abbey the heads, except the tongues, of fish which are called whales which may come to shore in the king’s own demesne on the Dunfermline (ie north) side of the Firth of Forth.
And shortly after that, in 1164, the same king informed his chief lawman of Fife and the sheriffs of Dunfermline and Clackmannan that he had granted to Dunfermline Abbey, for providing lights before the altars of its church, half of all the fat of whales and large fish which were taken between Forth and Tay.
It is an indication of just how affluent a society we have become when we can commit to the flames what was once clearly regarded as a precious resource, even when it is handed to us on a plate.
Simon Taylor.7 Seaside Place,Aberdour.
Horrified by crudity of film
Sir, – I went to the cinema with my family, on the spur of the moment, to see ”Ted” and was absolutely horrified at the swearing, blasphemy, crudity and sexual implications.
What makes producers think they have to put all that filth into a film to call it entertainment? I’m sure people don’t leave a cinema saying: ”I didn’t enjoy that film, there wasn’t enough swearing in it.”
There are no family values nowadays. My granddaughters are 16 and I felt most uncomfortable and I am sure their parents did too.
Every trailer we saw had the same depravity. It certainly doesn’t encourage me to go back.
It could have been a nice, funny film.
E. Clark.4 Ann Terrace,Brechin.
It’s more like Brigadoom
Sir, – Ronald Henderson’s letter (September 8) so refreshingly illustrates SNP ethnocentricity. It is not often that identity politics so clearly exposes its kinship with racism.
We’re Scottish, here’s tae us, wha’s like us?…naebody…an’ they’re a’ deid…
Not so much Brigadoon, as Brigadoom?
Andrew Lawson.9 MacLaren Gardens,Dundee.