Interactive: Hard facts only way to prove council has it right on trams

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

IN RESPONSE to Councillor Gordon Mackenzie (Letters 26 January) in his never-ending defence of the trams project, when have the council ever kept any promises on this scheme?

He quotes out of date information being used when anyone condemns the scheme, but if I recall correctly, the council is forever refusing to disclose any information which will portray the true cost and timescale of this expensive project.

He says the tram project will be delivered in 2012 as promised, but I recall 2011 being quoted originally, and as we are now in 2010 and we have less than a mile of tracks laid on Princes Street (taking ten months to lay with overtime!), and known problems at Murrayfield, Haymarket and Leith, to name a few I doubt 2012 is achievable without ballooning the cost ever more.

A sum "far less than 1 billion" for the total cost. How much is far less? 750 million, 850m or 950m and is this the line complete, or just part of it opening? Come on, Cllr Mackenzie, stop pulling the wool over our eyes and tell us what the perceived difficulties truly are and the total cost and true timescale.

Even with tracks laid (with new tarmac crumbling alongside before the icy spell) I have not "warmed" to the project as Cllr Dawe thinks "most" of us have!

Peter Chalmers, Farne Court, Kirkcaldy

Ludicrous red tape hurting vulnerable

YESTERDAY afternoon I was visiting my seriously-ill mother at the Western General Hospital. I arrived at 2:45 in time to park for a 3pm visiting hour. Because the main car park is being rebuilt spaces are, understandably, few and far between and at 3:05 I finally found a space outwith the grounds in Carrington Road. I put 2 into the machine, but no ticket was issued. I therefore left a note on my windscreen explaining the situation (many other people had done the same) and ran up the hill to the hospital.

When I returned to the car I found that I had been issued with a penalty charge notice – as had all other cars in the parking bay.

What on earth are we supposed to do? I expect that the majority of those issued with tickets were visiting sick relatives at the hospital and needed to get there urgently before the visiting hour was over. We had all acted totally legally, and had all left notices explaining the situation. Nobody was acting against the law.

Either the parking warden was totally lacking in compassion and common sense or else the rules under which he operates are ludicrous. Whatever the case, someone needs to be severely reprimanded for placing members of the public, already severely stressed due to family illness, under the further strain of having to cope with ludicrous bureaucracy.

Alan Borthwick, Dalkeith Street, Edinburgh

Cancel debt to show Haiti we care

GIVEN the horrific repercussions of the earthquake that has hit Haiti, killing as many as 200,000 people, it is vital that governments and institutions cancel Haiti's foreign debt, amounting to some 557 million.

Expecting Haiti to repay hundreds of millions of pounds as the country struggles to overcome the worst natural disaster in recent years is extremely cruel and unnecessary.

It is estimated that it will take a decade to rebuild Haiti, and cancelling this debt will send a clear signal to the Haitian people that a long-term commitment is being made to their nation's recovery.

Alex Orr, Bryson Road, Edinburgh

'Abandoned' church was sold reluctantly

AS A steward of Tranent Methodist Church I have been asked by the congregation to clarify an number of points regarding a recent article (Abandoned church is transformed, News, 12 January).

The church building in question was not abandoned, but sold by the Edinburgh and Forth Methodist Circuit in 2005 to be redeveloped as housing, the congregation being unable to fund the extensive structural repairs that the building needed at that time.

Understandably, older members of the congregation were upset when the building was described as "abandoned". The congregation only gave up the building with the greatest reluctance.

LJ Bain, The Green, Pencaitland