Letters: No surprises from a blunder we'll all end up paying for

Published on Wednesday 3 February 2010 09:00

NO-ONE should be surprised by your report "Thousands hit by council tax blunder" (News, 1 February) or by the way the council is dealing with it.

It is just as well for the authority more people are not aware of all the flaws in the banding system.

It is the taxpayers who will have to pay for all the errors in administering this costly scheme, which should never have been introduced in the first place.

One of the many advantages of local income taxes is that it doesn't try to deprive you of money you may not actually have.

But we are stuck with this extortion racket which benefits no-one but those with high incomes.

Alan Murphy, Learmonth Grove, Edinburgh

No tender mercies from the council

YOUR "half-term report card" on the city council (News, 1 February) did not mention the ruling coalition's appalling handling of the recent tender of social care services in the city, where they sought to sell off the care of our most vulnerable residents to the lowest bidder, without regard for their most basic needs or wishes.

The council promised transparency.

Yesterday, the Deloitte report on the tender – produced at a cost of 80,000 of public money – was finally released but will not be made available to those disabled individuals affected by its contents; instead, councillors will view the report in private.

The whole exercise has been proven to be a shambles and the chief executive now says it should be scrapped.

Yet the fear and uncertainty for service users and carers continues, since the rate paid for services is still to be linked to bids in the discredited tender.

The vote of no confidence in Cllr Paul Edie must now go ahead, and the administration must reconsider its whole approach to rate-setting, based upon individual need rather than cost-cutting.

Elizabeth Taylor, Ramsay Place, Edinburgh

Help soldier's girl, not yourselves

IT BEGGARS belief that a serving soldier has to raise funds for his child's education (News, 30 January).

What are the council thinking of? They can find money to fund their expensive trips abroad, also for the pointless tram system. I hope they can sleep at night.

Mrs M Anderson, Steps Street, Stenhousemuir, Larbert

Double standards on hotel parking

WITHIN days of the announcement that police had issued an on-the-spot fine to a van driver for having the audacity to blow his nose whilst sitting stationary at a set of traffic lights, we now learn that guests of the Balmoral Hotel in Princes Street are to be allowed free parking on the single yellow lines outside the hotel (News, 1 February).

The concession comes as a direct result of the hotel bosses complaint to the council that some of the poor wee souls who pay up to 500 per night for a room have been given parking tickets for 60 for their illegal parking activities outside the hotel.

You just simply could not make it up!

Looks like yet another example of one law for the rich and another for the poor.

John Belford, Caiystane Gardens, Edinburgh

Too much charity on the city streets

WHEN it comes to the easing of the suffering and hardship in countries such as Haiti I think just about any means of raising funds is a good idea and the public should be given every encouragement to make donations whenever they can.

Mind you on the subject of charity, it may be a bit of an exaggeration, but is Princes Street being slowly turned into a Mecca for charities, other cash-orientated bodies and of course beggars?

It is vital that the public are made aware of the various charities that are on the go but I do not think the public are to keen on being approached by strangers every 200 yards or so.

The volunteers involved in this type of work may be quite friendly and polite but to a vulnerable individual they may come across as being quite intimidating and there is already enough of that on the streets!

Angus McGregor, Albion Road, Edinburgh

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