Porty bag an eco echo from past

Published on Friday 29 February 2008 08:11

WHILE delighted that Leith and Portobello have succeeded with their reusable bag schemes (News, February 27), I remain disappointed that the Labour group on Edinburgh City Council twice failed to carry through the calico bags I pioneered as long ago as 1996.

The original trial bag was launched in 1996 and all 5000 sold out very quickly.

Then the council produced calico bags for its Festival of the Environment. This time the bags were among other unprotected items totally ruined by heavy rain. Despite repeated "nagging" I failed to get support for calico bags again.

I still have an example of each bag. They're pretty worn now, but served me, and I hope the city, well.

Moyra Forrest, Sciennes councillor 1990-2003, Starbank Road, Edinburgh

No tolls . . so no stopping high vehicles

THE recent spell of strong winds and the associated restrictions on the Forth Road Bridge calls into question the Forth Estuary Transport Authority's ability to manage traffic approaching the bridge on the south side now that tolls have been abolished.

Prior to the abolition of tolls, high-sided vehicles could be stopped at the tollbooths before being directed down the service road by the tollbooth staff in order to turn the vehicles around. With the tollbooths gone, it is almost impossible to stop prohibited vehicles from crossing the bridge.

On the worst day of the winds, on February 26, the police were turning vehicles around at the toll plaza and the resulting queues resulted in a complete transport meltdown in west Edinburgh, with all the main roads gridlocked and bus services severely disrupted.

Perhaps FETA should look towards the Dublin Port Tunnel for a solution to this problem. The tunnel is not high enough for certain lorries, and overheight vehicles are tracked up to 3km from the tunnel portals, with automatic signage and as a last resort barriers deployed to stop the vehicle. Such a system at the Forth Bridge would help ensure the safety of road users during high winds and release the police from traffic control duties.

Martin Gallagher, Stoneyflatts Crescent, South Queensferry

Property giveaway is closer to home

PEOPLE seem to have a xenophobic view with regard to the question of who property in Edinburgh should be sold to (Letters, February 26, "Shaken and stirred by Sheikhs' plans"). Yet no-one seems to mind if our civic guardians give away the jewels in our property crown to local developers for nothing.

I am referring to the 1.68 acre site of the old Waverley Market on the south side of Princes Street. This site, a common good asset belonging to the people of Edinburgh, brought in a regular income from car parking charges after the market was demolished in 1971 but was then leased to developers for 125 years in 1982 later extended to a 206-year lease in 1989.

The bargain basement market value for this site, which houses the Princes Mall? ONE PENNY a year.

So in the year 2188 Edinburgh City Council will collect 2.06. This act of generosity by our councillors will have deprived the common good fund of lost revenue of about 20 million.

Tom Minogue, Victoria Terrace, Dunfermline

Robust systems are protecting patients

WITH reference to your story "Patients' medical histories stored on stolen laptop" (News, February 25), I would like to reassure your readers that NHS Lothian has robust systems in place to protect patient confidentiality. Your story indicated that the loss of a laptop from the home of a former researcher led to an "internal NHS review".

The investigation was not an internal review, it was a joint investigation with the University of Edinburgh as it was their employee who had broken NHS rules on the safe storage of confidential data. There are very strict rules safeguarding confidential data which we expect all staff and partner organisations to observe.

These are made very clear to anyone seeking access to our data for research purposes and form part of the arrangements in place.

NHS Lothian supports medical research and our staff and patients will be involved in many research studies. Where NHS Lothian is assisting with commercial research, all patient data is anonymised before leaving NHS Lothian's systems. Confidentiality is protected in academic research through a number of systems. Researchers will either have NHS Lothian honorary contracts, and be subject to NHS Lothian's governance and disciplinary codes, or have had their projects vetted through NHS Lothian's ethics committee.

NHS Lothian staff face dismissal if they are found to have breached our confidentiality policies.

Dr Charles Swainson, medical director, NHS Lothian

Take care over this emotive subject

I FEEL I must write to correct the impression that may have been given in your piece "Pinpointing the pervert population" in Monday's News about sex offenders, in which I was quoted.

My first response which was not published was that perhaps this article would create an unnecessary panic in the neighbourhood, as happened last spring.

I also added that the police carefully monitor the situation of each individual when they are released.

I did indeed mention that an application for a hostel had been turned down at planning due to the number of these facilities within a small area of Leith particularly around Leith Links. I think it is important that no one part of the city is swamped with hostels of any variety, particularly in a largely residential area.

This is a hugely emotive subject which needs to be tackled with care, in order to protect the community, and preserve personal liberty.

Marjorie Thomas, councillor, Leith Ward

A major problem with Minor review

MY name is Amber. I'm 14 and I'm really annoyed. The article about Elliot Minor written by Darren Scott was a load of rubbish.

I was at that gig and everyone I talked to afterwards said it was the best gig they had seen in ages. It wasn't like a million other gigs by rock indie bands, and by the way, tell Darren that they're not indie rock. They're nowhere near it. I'd say they're more rock to hardcore rock. Some songs were pop rock.

You shouldn't get people like him to write those articles. There'll be people that read that article and say they're glad they never went, when in fact they missed out.

Darren should go see bands more suited to his own genre.

Amber Hollinger, Eskhill, Penicuik