Loss of parkland a small price to pay for education

Published on Friday 18 April 2008 09:13

IT seems that there is a group of people in Portobello who cannot remember that the council commissioned a very comprehensive report in 2006 from the architects, Smith Scott Mullan which looked at 15 different site options for Portobello High School. Perhaps they could send off for a copy and keep it in the library for everyone to read?

Adelaide Brown (letters, April 15) suggests the Scottish Power site is a good one for a school. But the architects' report concluded that this site, is "likely to have soil contamination issues" and is also in multiple ownership, so there are significant cost issues in purchasing the site. And engineers have advised that the site is covered with high and low voltage cables and they would have to be relocated which is costly and might not be allowed by Scottish Power. The "waste site" is similar.

Adelaide Brown might be happy for children to go to a school built on contaminated land, under overhead power lines, but most of us are not.

Park supporters might not like it, but Portobello Park is the "least worst" option. Let's remember if we all work together, we could end up with a really well designed school, that's just two storeys high, with playing fields around it, that could be used by 1400 children every single day and by the community in the evenings. Isn't that worth the loss of a little bit of green space?

G Baillie, Bath Street, Portobello

Lesson to learn over teacher's job

I WRITE in response to V Radzynski's letter (April 15). As a secondary school teacher I am enraged by his ignorance with regard to what teaching involves.

I am not sure if he is aware that teachers plan their own lessons and the world has changed since the 50s and 60s and continues to do so every day.

We no longer lecture from textbooks yet engage pupils with a variety of approaches, including incorporating interactive technology, and as a French teacher I spend my own money to bring in food and products from the country to make the language come to life.

We are all certainly qualified sir, yet the world changes and we must adapt to this.

Furthermore as a school bus driver surely he understands the boisterous nature of pupils that we have to motivate to learn?

Unfortunately, inservice days are not coffee mornings but it is where we are kept up-to-date on relevant teaching issues that we find difficult to fit in around teaching, planning, parents' evenings, report writing, extra-curricular activities to mention a few of our day-to-day tasks.

I am a teacher because I love the contact with young people and their enthusiasm to learn (at times!).

There is nothing more satisfying than meeting a former pupil who says that they remember the lesson you brought in croissant and French cheese and that this is what inspired them to work hard and save money to go to France because their parents could never have afforded to take them. That is what makes our job worthwhile.

We know we merit our holidays as we do not work four-and-a-half day weeks – at my last calculation I work on average 90 hours a week.

If teaching is such an easy job perhaps Mr Radzynski and I could swap jobs for a week. Before you judge others you should walk a mile in their shoes.

K Haldane, Drumbrae, Edinburgh

What's happened is a Lamb disgrace

A DIVERSION took me away from the normal passage down Constitution Street and through the old town of Leith.

Meandering round Coalhill we took a bend and there before us was the disgrace that is Lamb's House. Two months ago the current custodians were seeking plaudits for negotiating that this historic building would soon be returned to daily use.

I thought then that these public purse-holders were as a minimum doing historic Leith a disservice by taking this step. It can be seen now that this move was taken because in its disgraceful condition the property is no more than a slum.

Whoever is responsible for doling out the public purse to those who purport to be saving the historic heritage of Scotland should start bringing them to account.

How many other buildings with this rich historic past lie in a similar neglected state? None which are in the public gaze.

Steve Mitchell, West Granton Road, Edinburgh

Oil crops adding to shortage of food

AS of this week all petrol sold at UK pumps now has to include 2.5 per cent biofuels, part of an approach to the EU's target of ten per cent of all road fuels by 2020. This is, however, a strategy that is contributing to soaring food prices, is responsible for clearing people off their land and exacerbating climate change.

When first formulated, the biofuel target appeared eminently sensible. However, the law of unintended consequences has kicked into effect. Industrial conglomerates all over the world have not been slow to recognise there was money to be made from turning foodstuffs into alcohol, in growing oil crops rather than cereals and in ploughing up the world's forests and peat-bogs for biofuel plantations. With it more profitable to grow fuel rather than food, at a time when there is a shortage of food, we are contributing to rapidly increasing food prices.

Biofuel production is depriving the world of vital land to grow crops, just at the time when climate change is inducing drought in large areas of Africa and Asia. It is vital the UK Government puts a stop to this policy.

Alex Orr, Bryson Road, Edinburgh

China showing it is a bully in Tibet

TIBET has been occupied by China since 1950 when Red Guards marched in to Tibet and tried to subjugate the Tibetan people and their way of life. China claimed it was "liberating" Tibet. China is only showing itself to be a cruel bully.

Trevor Swistchew, The Paddockholm, Edinburgh

Shedding light on mystery of skies

I CAN clarify some aspects of the sighting of curious lights seen from Edinburgh on April 12 (Mystery in the sky at night, News, April 15).

The irregular shape shown is due to movement of the mobile phone, not the objects themselves, described as "orange balls". This is confirmed by the same shape being visible in both objects (movement is also visible in the ground scenery).

As to the cause, the description of the objects' behaviour is consistent with them being mirage images of some moving distant light, itself out of sight. This source was probably the headlights of an aircraft approaching Edinburgh Airport.

Such superior mirages can form when a strong temperature inversion forms under a clear sky.

Steuart Campbell, Dovecot Loan, Edinburgh