‘Grand projects’ must be reined in

I READ with interest your readers’ letters (6 November) railing against the Aberdeen gardens proposals. Not to be outdone in the grand projects stakes, our local authority has come up with its own hare-brained plan that echoes in so many ways the debacles of Edinburgh trams and Aberdeen gardens. To wit, the proposal to demolish Perth City Hall to make way for a piazza. (In this climate?). The estimated cost is £3 million. The majority of people object to the plan, despite some creative efforts by the council to say otherwise. The justification that a new square will provide more benefit to Perth than the re-use of this fabulous, grand listed building has failed to convince.

People are increasingly questioning the Keynesian compact of the capitalist system: great inequalities of wealth were tolerated as it was thought that capitalism is self-correcting. Now that it appears this might not be the case or, at least, only through severe pain to the masses, the whole system is under stress. Similarly, I have noticed a huge groundswell of reaction against local authorities and national political parties, not to mention the EU. Yes, citizens have been easily induced to vote for a political party that borrows up to the hilt, on the false assumption that we have beaten boom and bust. Now we are wiser and poorer, and there needs to be closer scrutiny of public debts and spending.

Given the unbelievable cost of the trams project, we would be foolish to sit back and let politicians and bureaucrats have free rein. Perhaps your readers could cheer us up by providing references for any local councils that are not dysfunctional: there must be some surely?

Robert Booth, Perth