Evening News: Letters to the editor

School lesson not learned as history repeats itselfTHE present Portobello High School was built on the sports field shared by the high school, Towerbank and St John's, thus depriving future generations from these three schools of an excellent local sports ground, and the site had always been too small for the school.

Looking at the approved new school site, history is repeating itself - a small area that is a local sports field, and adjacent to one of the busiest roads in Edinburgh. Looking at the construction plans and materials it too will probably last only 50 years.

A more suitable site within the catchment area, without having any adverse impact on residential amenity or road safety for pupils, would have been East and West Telferton.

This is a large site with some industrial buildings which could easily be demolished and their firms relocated.

To ensure pupil safety a subway could be built under Harry Lauder Road to replace the existing crossing at Fishwives Causeway. There is already an access footpath from Fishwives Causeway to Mountcastle and Durham.

Of course, the council make money from these industrial units and they will always go for the cheapest option and put this before children's education or welfare.

A Shiels, Milton Drive, Edinburgh

Easier to leave car in the garage

IT'S debatable if Edinburgh these days is against the motorist but when you take into consideration the soaring cost of fuel, expensive insurance policies, the general state of the roads and of course the scandalous cost of parking, who would want to be a motorist in the Capital nowadays?

Over the years the volume of traffic has increased considerably and with no end in sight to this growth in spite of the escalating costs, perhaps it is time we seriously asked ourselves some searching questions about our dependency on the motor car.

I do not run a car myself but you have to sympathise with all those who do because it does seem as if they are being penalised left, right and centre for what is perhaps far more of a stressful pastime these days than a pleasure.

Angus McGregor, Albion Road, Edinburgh

Investigate this Gathering storm

THE Scottish Parliament Public Audit Committee report into The Gathering fiasco (News, February 24) raises some very serious questions about just how Edinburgh City Council is currently being led. Detailed written evidence, now publicly available, from both the council's former head of communications and also from the council's current media manager, directly contradicts oral evidence provided by the leader and deputy leader of the council.

Both sets of evidence simply cannot be accurate and this led the Scottish Parliament Committee to conclude that they had "serious concerns regarding the quality of the oral evidence from the council witnesses and does not consider their evidence to be credible".

This is a damning indictment of the current council leadership and the oral evidence they presented, especially when one considers that the parliamentary committee that approved this report, did so on an all-party basis with no division of opinion.

It is now essential that the council's own audit committee is allowed to undertake an investigation, as requested by the Parliament, to ensure that the appropriate lessons are learned form this damaging episode and that proper procedures are in place to prevent such a situation from ever occurring again.

Andrew Burns, councillor for Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart Ward, leader, Labour group, Edinburgh City Council

Wake up, Clegg and Cameron

THE "Big Society" is a myth. There are young people in their thousands with no jobs, older people on one of Europe's lowest pensions and no end in sight to the war in Afghanistan.

Cameron and Clegg need to wake up.

Trevor Swistchew, Victor Park Terrace, Edinburgh