Letters: Tramline split is much more decisive than poll suggests

Published on Saturday 3 July 2010 11:12

Do you agree that the vast majority of Capital residents would vote to end the tram works?

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Evening News, 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AS

YOUR recent article that the trams split the city by a short margin in favour of scrapping the trams revealed "49 per cent were in favour and 39 per cent against".

If there was a referendum on the trams I reckon the figure would be more like 95 per cent against.

I have driven a taxi in Edinburgh since the trams were announced and have yet to meet anyone who wants them.

They have got this one very wrong – this is a huge white elephant.

I cannot even figure out who is going to use them, as most journeys entail having to get a bus and a tram. Most people ask me what's the point when they can get a bus all the way.

I meet people from down south every day and they ask what is the point in running one tramline through the city and I do not have a positive answer. There is no point. Why can't the council see this?

The current roadworks have crippled the city, which I could live with if it was going to be of any benefit. This proposed line is an absolute joke and it needs to be stopped now.

Peter O'Flaherty, Edinburgh

Sad to see square being neglected

WHY is there no water in the ornamental pond in St Andrew Square Gardens?

It has been empty for some weeks and considering it was part of the over 2 million expenditure, it is sad it is being so soon neglected.

I would also suggest that the lion has been badly sited as it is visually obscured by the stone seating in front of it. It would have been better sited on the hilly southern side of the gardens.

James Andrews, Woodburn Terrace, Edinburgh

New school is a credit to its pupils

THE new Tynecastle High School hosted its first Concert and Awards Ceremony last week.

The new school is very spacious, bright and colourful and it was a privilege again to be in the audience at this ceremony.

The student musicians who played for us on violins, cello, clarinet and tuba were excellent, not forgetting the samba band that had all of our feet tapping.

The students who were presented with their certificates of distinction, certificates of excellence, special awards and culminating in the Dux Award is a joy for everyone who was there to see, not least the staff who give their best to the students to enable them to achieve this standard of excellence.

I'd just like to say congratulations to every award winner this year and hope that every student continues to enjoy their new school in years to come.

Liz Henderson, Whitson Walk, Edinburgh

Another leader is failing to listen

SO THE Foreign Secretary, William Hague, reckons the British troops will be pulled out of Afghanistan by the year 2015, claiming that it would be a betrayal of the British people to withdraw them too soon.

I would imagine that the vast majority of the British people felt betrayed when the troops were sent there in the first place.

The venture was not worth the loss of even one human life. Indeed, the Evening News published a letter of mine on 8 July 2009 by which time 174 British servicemen had needlessly lost their lives.

Now we are steadily approaching the hour when that figure will be doubled, because the death rate is increasing rapidly.

I just cannot believe that since the start of the invasion, three Prime Ministers have been in harmony about the merits of the imbecilic aggression, standing aloof, it would seem, from the rest of the British people.

So, it must be asked, who are actually the principal beneficiaries of the madness? Prolonging it will simply create nothing but more misery until such times as the Taleban extinguishes the occupancy.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown will be delighted they can slip into the background, leaving David Cameron with the job of prolonging the suffering.

Withdrawing the troops will most likely be the agonising decision left for the next Prime Minister.

William Burns, Pennywell Road, Edinburgh