Sir, – I write with reference to the letter from Clark Cross (November 4) about road funding and cyclists.
Between 1920 and 1937, there was a thing called road tax where the income from motorists was solely for building and repairing roads.
However, this pot was often overspent and had to be topped up from the general taxation budget.
Since 1937, all money from Vehicle Excise Duty has been paid into the general tax pot and anyone who pays any sort of tax contributes to the road system.
Vehicle Excise Duty is based primarily on the size of the vehicle and the emission levels of that particular vehicle.
Taking into account the weight, emission level, wear and tear on the road, a cyclist’s proportional liability would be 3p a year.
As there are approximately 20 million cyclists in the UK, it would need a system the same size as DVLA to administer the registration of cyclists VED and I am sure all UK taxpayers would notwelcome that additional burden on their taxes to collect the 3p per cyclist per year.
The £70 million from the Scottish Government that was quoted has not already been spent on cycling. It is a fund that is available to councils and other partners who are committed to getting the Scottish people to do more walking and cycling.
Indeed, much of the money that has been spent has been on tourist trails in glens and forests to encourage people to get out and do more exercise.
The allocation ofthis money mainly depends on the other partners being able to contribute half of the project cost.
I personally cannot see where much hasbeen spent on urban improvements in Dundee, for example, other than a few extra signs and some paint lines on the road.
Dave Brimner. Mearns Drive, Montrose.
Charge on basis of emissions
Sir, – I write in response to the letter from Clark Cross and his thought that cyclists should be paying to use our highways.
I agree and would bewilling pay to use safe and maintained roads.
But I would expect to have the same arrangement as we currently do for car use: the costs determined as per CO2 emissions.
Alison Page. 9 Hunter Crescent, Invergowrie.
Expat Scots penalised
Sir, – Is there a special dispensation for Scotsliving in England who would like to study at a Scottish university?
My son Matthew falls into this category. Born in Kirkcaldy of Scottish parents and grandparents he is devastated to fall into the ‘rest of the UK’ bracket.
You will be hard pressed to find a more patriotic boy.
I can understand that the Scottish Government does not want to be paying tuition fees for all the English, Welsh and Northern Irish students but surely there should be a consideration for the Scots living in the rest of the UK who had no choice but to move with their parents.
We moved when my husband lost his job.
We had little choice. We have Scottish wills and a home we rent out and will be returning to Scotland some day.
To add insult to injury, we had a private visit to Aberdeen University last week and were shown around along with aGerman girl and her father from Berlin who were attracted by the free tuition.
We bumped into the same girl in St Andrews.
Does the Scottish electorate know that they are paying the tuition fees for all these EU nationals?
It does not seem fair to me and I believe my son’s birthright and parentage must account for something.
“The rocks will melt with the sun before I allow tuition fees to be imposed on Scotland’s students”, stated Alex Salmond.
I see his comments were carefully worded not to say Scottishstudents.
He also avoided mentioning French, German, Italian and Spanishstudents to name a few.
Gillian Finnigan. Budbury Farm, Bradford on Avon Wiltshire.
Short-sighted Angus cuts
Sir, – Some alleged cost-cutting measures which have been happening in Angus only cut costs if you take a very short-sighted view.
Cutting the home help service puts workers on the dole, thus becoming a cost to society while making vulnerable folk less able to cope in their own homes and more likely to require a care home or a hospital.
The idea that this saves society anything is an illusion. The same is true of axing the home laundry scheme for incontinent adults. This just means increased cost in a different way.
We’re told Britain is trillions of pounds in debt, that Scotland is billions of pounds in debt and Angus Council is millions of pounds in debt.
But we did not cause these problems. We will resist cuts to sheltered housing in Angus and plan a meeting on Tuesday November 10; call 01356 647848 fordetails.
Keri Malone. Inglis Court, Edzell. Beatrice Gerrard. Andy Stewart Court, Arbroath. Dave Coull. Inglis Court, Edzell.
Blairgowrie disappointment
Sir, – I have just received news that Perth and Kinross Council has turned down a bid by Ericht Trust Ltd to buy the derelict Hill Primary School in Blairgowrie for conversion into an imaginative facility for use by both locals and visitors.
This is something Blairgowrie and Rattray needs to correct theglaring absence of any kind of permanent indoor attraction.
The B-listed building is handsome and a prominent feature in the town. What better use than to dedicate it to the needs of us all, whether for our own interest or that of the visitors.
So what do the visitors do when the weather is foul? Drive to Dundee, Perth, Pitlochry and then, maybe, back forthe night or onward to Braemar?
Apart from thedisappointed group who have worked so hard to design the proposed facility and back up their work with detailed business plans, the whole town will despair of this decision.
The highly experienced group forming Ericht Trust Ltd have held public consultations and meetings at which it was clear that the town was backing the project. Now this.
John Wilson. Fernbank, Craighall Castle Drive. Rattray.
Sinister SNP legislation
Sir, – Taken in isolation, the SNP’s named person scheme could be seen as an innocent, though overzealous and misguided attempt tomonitor the wellbeing of children in families.
However, when viewed alongside the SNP’s manifest desire to micromanage many other areas of life in Scotland, ensuring that everything is run according to the one-true philosophy of the state, such a charitable interpretation is naive.
The line crossed bythe named personlegislation is that it asks these state-appointed monitors to assessfamilies, not just for neglect or abuse, but for whatever the SNP deems to be unsuitable parenting and to take action accordingly.
The assumption used to be that biological parents were responsible for bringing up their children as they saw fit, with the state intervening in extreme cases.
Now the trend is towards the state allocating children to adults as they see fit.
Reproductive technologies and unorthodox household compositions, along with the desire of people to have children without a reproductive relationship, have led to the state getting too used to deciding who is going to be classed as theparent or carer of which children.
With this normalisation of state planningand the SNP’s determination to enforce its philosophy in every corner of Scottish life, it is only a matter of time before children are taken away from perfectly goodparents who see the world from a different perspective than Nicola Sturgeon.
Richard Lucas. 11 Broomyknowe, Colinton, Edinburgh.
Pretence ofUK power
Sir, – The real reason for the Tories and others of the political rightsupporting the retention of nuclear weapons and the renewal of Trident has little to do withreal defence needs or deterrence but everything to do with theinternational status of London governments and a pretence that we are still a world power.
I would be happy tosee this international influence lost.
Robin Ball. 27 Morgan Street, Dundee.