Interactive: Overhead tram line supports lack elegance of yesteryear

Do you think the new tram project will match the elegance of the original system, or would you rather not be seeing it in the city at all? Let us know what you think

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I HAVE recently visited Princes Street and whilst there I took the opportunity to see how the much-criticised tram project was getting on.

I was absolutely horrified to see the structures there that have been put up to support the overhead wiring.

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When you refer back to the pictures of the elegant and slim silver-painted overhead poles (with their hanging flower baskets in summer) which used to adorn Princes Street and now see these very obtrusive and large poles it makes you question what is going on.

They are so bulky it makes you wonder if the contractors had the right drawings. These poles are more substantial than those supporting the main line to London.

Furthermore, modern overhead is supposed to be of lighter construction than that of the first-generation trams we once knew – so what is the need for these poles that have just been installed? It is no wonder the costs for the project are so high.

RM Stevenson, Craiglockhart Gardens, Edinburgh

Give services for people, not profit

IN RECENT days, beleaguered by unusually severe winter weather, we have had stories of private companies stealing from, and emptying, the salt from the grit bins the council fills in residential estates for the use of householders . . . of private companies swooping to buy up pallet loads of salt from DIY stores before a householder could buy a single bag for their own path . . . and finally the private companies contracted by the councils to keep the trunk roads free, taking the money, of course, but failing to deliver the service they have contracted for.

Even the police have demanded that the gritting and salting of key routes be returned to the councils for delivery. Will this silence the cavaliers and dullards who daily call for the privatisation of everything? No, I thought not.

When will these dinosaurs, whose social development arrested in the 1980s, realise that most public services are not appropriate for private delivery – that they exist to deliver a service, not a profit? The sooner that road development, maintenance and care, the hospitals and their damned car-parks, rail and air transport are back in the hands of publicly-employed staff who put people before profit, the better.

David Fiddimore, Calton Road, Edinburgh

Snow gone .. here comes the gritter

I AM compelled to write regarding the recent cold weather and the effect it has had on our council services. No brown bin emptied, will now be another month till this happens. No green bins emptied last week, hopefully it will be this week.

The black street bins are overflowing, a total disgrace, and a real health hazard. Very little gritting done on the side streets during the bad weather.

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But on Tuesday, with the thaw well under way and my particular street clear, what do I see but a vehicle putting down grit. Bizarre.

Peter Tuck, Summerside Street, Edinburgh

Drink abuse cost is a sobering thought

AS THE festive season is now behind us it is sobering and shocking to think that an independent study has apparently calculated that alcohol related problems cost each Scottish adult a staggering 900 (News, 12 January).

There is no doubt that alcoholism can affect many people at different stages in their life but as a nation perhaps it is our collective responsibility to get to the root causes of this national problem.

Angus McGregor, Albion Road, Edinburgh

Labour should back alcohol price move

I AM amazed that there is no support for the SNP government's proposal for the minimum pricing of alcohol from the opposition Labour MSPs.

The medical profession is in favour of it because it helps to save the lives of Scottish people.

This attitude of the Labour MSPs is shameful as I always understood that the Labour Party was formed to improve the lives of all of us and not to assist in wrecking them. Perhaps the Labour MSPs will change their minds now that their colleagues at Westminster are considering following the SNP government's proposal.

Susan Swain, Innerwick, Dunbar