Sir, Once again, the Scottish countryside is invaded by ever-growing fleets of travellers’ caravans, cars and trucks.
This problem is not confined to Angus, Fife and Dundee. Aberdeen has just spent thousands of pounds clearing up disgusting rubbish, human waste and flammable cylinders etc, from each and every site these people abandon.
Sports fields, golf courses, hotel facilities, various car parks have all been seriously contaminated. It’s time to take the gloves off. Forget the bleeding heart and politically correct brigade’s protestations that “it is their way of life”. The minority are making a laughing stock of the majority.
Every time taxpayers complain the stock answer from virtually all councils is: “Our travellers’ liaison officer is monitoring the situation.”
It is time to get serious. If the Scottish Government won’t allow local councils to introduce bye laws to control this, there is a simple and straight forward solution.
Wherever an illegal site is established, the police should visit it and note down every vehicle and caravan registration number. They could also check insurances, MOTs and licences at the same time.
When the time arrives for these people to depart, any expense incurred during the inevitable clean up should be attributed directly to the owners of the vehicles.
They should be given the option, clean the site or pay the bill.
I appreciate there will be howls of protests from the civil libertarians but the time has arrived when the taxpayers should be afforded the same consideration the travellers appear to enjoy.
Come on, councillors, get a bit of backbone and stand up for the people who put you there.
Peter F Toms. Dundee.
Political junk mail is invasion of privacy
Sir, In my morning post I received an election mailshot from the Scottish Conservative Party, personally addressed to me. I was very annoyed at this as I have had no previous contact with them, nor do I wish any!
I contacted the office in Edinburgh who then advised me that they obtained my details from the electoral register.
I find this to be an invasion of privacy. When I received a form asking to update my details for the election register I ticked the box that said I wished to be on the edited register so that companies could not use my details for direct marketing.
Unbeknown to me, political parties can access the full register and bombard the electorate with junk mail. What happened to the old- fashioned way of prospective politicians wearing out their shoe leather posting leaflets through anonymous doors? This way is an invasion of privacy and a waste of money for the parties as I will be sending this back at their expense!
Gordon Kennedy. 117 Simpson Square, Perth.
Flytipping not a new problem
Sir, Regarding The Courier’s article, Dundee flytippers ‘targeting’ Angus, the problem of flytipping on the border of Dundee and Angus is not, as has been suggested, caused by the closure of the Marchbanks facility in Dundee.
Flytipping has always been a problem in these areas. It is not unusual to have the material left by the side of the road for months despite repeated requests to Angus Council to have it moved.
Local people are now used to this and actually lift flytipped material and take it to the recycling centre in Carnoustie. In one instance, 12 bags of waste were left at the side of the road and were removed as the bags were degrading and spreading the contents over adjoining fields jeopardising livestock and making an unsightly mess.
Angus Council appears to be making heavy weather of implementing the new waste management scheme and since its inception we have noticed the rat activity has increased. If not dealt with as a matter of urgency this could become a health problem.
Could this problem be exacerbated by the stress-induced absence of Angus Council personnel? If this is the case, manpower should be brought in to alleviate this potentially dangerous situation.
Robert Alexander. Bothy Starforth, Carnoustie.
Queries about new timetable
Sir, I have been looking through the new bus time-table for Dundee’s Fintry route and note that there seems to be no change to the times allowed for the number 33, despite this bus having extra mileage added due to it now serving the newly-built “crescent” in Whitfield.
How can this be?
Apart from anything else, the service until now has not always been reliable, as many people in Fintry can testify. So how much worse is it going to become?
Some honest answers from the company regarding this matter would certainly help. A reliable service would be even better.
June Reid. 12 Findhorn Street, Fintry, Dundee.
Reason enough to vote “yes”?
Sir, The No campaign tell us that after 300 years “together” Scotland alone among the small nations of the world is incapable of standing on its own feet. Is this not reason enough for voting “yes”?
Gerry McGuigan. 24 Forebank Road, Dundee.