Sir, My husband and I attended the first conference in Stirling on November 24 entitled Scotland Against Spin
Lectures were given by an Edinburgh University economist, the director of UK intensive energy users’ group and experts on the electricity grid, impacts on industrial costs and on the undesirable health implications of living near wind turbines. I gleaned from their lectures the following:
These turbines are expensive and ineffectual.
They spoil our beautiful landscape with roads scarring our hills to install the brutes.
They last only 10 to 15 years, then they are left to disintegrate, leaving awful blots on our hills.
Anyone who lives near them suffers auditory and visual intrusions, eg in Lochgelly.
They make a horrible noise.
They harm birds and other wildlife.
They prove windpower is not free, considering the costs of the hardware and its concrete base, cost of transport eg, from China, Denmark and Germany.
In conclusion ,they hardly work, contribute well under 5% of our electricity, they cause stress and illness and they are more expensive than gas and oil and even nuclear.
The politicians were conned by the EU to install them and they cannot admit they are wrong!
Isabel Wardrop. 111 Viewlands Road, Perth.
Not bullying, only pointing out risks
Sir, I refer to Mr Harper’s letter, in which he complains about “bullying” from those of us who fervently believe that Scotland will have a better future within the United Kingdom than would be the case if we blindly accepted the SNP blandishments with all the uncertainties that still remain despite the publishing of the long awaited “White Paper”.
The fact he was born in England and is ex-RN is of no relevance to the independence issue, nor is the offensive comment concerning people with stock market investment.
If Mr Harper happens to use insurance companies, or has a private pension, or uses products from PLC’s then he has as much of a vested interest in the stock market as those he denigrates.
He fails to consider the fact that while the SNP offers a land of milk and honey, nowhere can we find in their propaganda, any honest mention of the downside risks that people should fully understand before they vote.
No doubt the “Better Together” campaign will highlight this significant omission and no doubt Mr. Harper will see this as yet more bullying.
Derek Farmer. Knightsward Farm, Anstruther.
Elected to help people here
Sir, Isn’t it wonderful how the London government can find £18.5 million (The Courier, November 27), to give to Afghanistan, a country where British troops are being killed and maimed regularly, while at the same time making it difficult for UK citizens struggling to heat their homes because of the massive hikes in the cost of gas and electricity.
Isn’t it time they remembered they were voted into power to serve the people of this country and to take care of them first and foremost?
June Reid. 12 Findhorn Street, Dundee.
Property built as a garage
Sir, I was interested to see the picture of the property at 3 Trades Lane in Wednesday’s Courier, but disappointed that no reference was made to its origin.
It is hardly likely to have “architectural or historical” value as it was constructed as a garage for Brayshay and Paterson.
Robert Paterson, a skilled engineer from Glasgow, and William Brayshay, from Bolton, were among the pioneers of the auto-electric industry in Dundee.
After the First World War the former army comrades opened for business in premises in Queen Street, just off the Seagate. They expanded to larger property in Foundry Lane, then a further move saw a switch to the south end of Trades Lane.
The garage at number 3opened after the Second World War and operated as such until being acquired by McLeish.
R Paterson. Broughty Ferry.
Soft touch Britain
Sir, Your story regarding a man who broke three car windscreens in Carnoustie being sentenced to 200 hours community service is terrible.
Why should the vehicle owners have to pay for new windscreens? Surely a compensation order should have been served?
He is lucky he is in soft touch Britain as in Singapore he would have been lashed for such an offence.
George Aimer. 82 Kinghorne Road, Dundee.