Letters: Blundering council must accept the mess it's made

IT has been amazing to see how many blunders our council has made over the years. We have a tram system that has ground to a halt and the ground that the Caltongate project was supposed to be built on looks like it's going to remain unoccupied for many years to come due to these recessionary times.

Why does Edinburgh always end up with these types of problems? For years we had holes in the ground in Castle Terrace, Greenside and the Royal Mile.

These projects were finished after many years of wrangling, but as soon as these areas were built on, we seem to have ended up with another hole in the ground.

How long will it be before something that is of use to the people of Edinburgh will be built on this land?

This is still a prime site, but if our council's past record is anything to go on, it will be a vacant site for many years.

We have a tram project that appears to be going nowhere in the immediate future and we have been told that even that might need to be cut back.

Why does our city always start something that it can't finish?

And why would anyone believe our council when it states that it is on top of these projects and that they are nothing to worry about?

Andrew Murphy, Royal Mile, Edinburgh

We shouldn't pay for party politics

FOLLOWING the recommendations of the alcohol commission last week, surely the response less than 24 hours later from Government members to the commission's proposal to ban alcohol from civic receptions has to be the quickest reaction ever by our government (News, September 2).

One could almost envisage the stricken faces. Further, I do not find it at all surprising that the Scottish Whisky Association would also be against the ban, for obvious reasons.

I do think, however, the comment from the "Scottish Government source" that receptions are "the places where people do drink responsibly" is extremely condescending. That suggests to me that anywhere that alcohol is served could be dubious at best.

I wonder if the MSPs and councillors can all, hand on heart, state that no-one has ever overindulged at a civic reception. I would doubt it.

This is yet another example of the "I'm all right Jack" attitude of the Scottish Government. Why should they worry about a hike in the price of alcohol for their receptions as a result of raising alcohol duty?

It's us who are paying for them to indulge.

Sheila Fraser, Beveridge Close, Dalkeith

House price rises not always good

"House price crash!" cry headlines in newspapers. Behind the headlines lies the simple fact that house prices may be flat-lining or even falling modestly.

The assumption, of course, is that rising house prices are a good thing. Maybe we have become too accustomed to that, over the last 15 years most of which have seen hyper house-price inflation.

And the result? Record numbers of first-time buyers locked out of the market.

Land prices that are too expensive, causing knock-on effects on the public purse by making social housing programmes unaffordable. And a private sector development model that is trapped into gambling on rising land prices as its main source of profit.

All of this is economically inefficient, socially divisive and grossly unsustainable. Let's start to see the return of house prices to some semblance of sanity as something to be celebrated, not feared.

Graeme Brown, director, Shelter Scotland, South Charlotte Street, Edinburgh

Fires reveal threat posed by Trident

As if any further reminder were needed on the dangers of nuclear weapons, the fires sweeping across Russia in close proximity to a nuclear weapon base is another example of the potential for Chernoybl II.

Having Trident bases in Scotland is madness. Embrace the growing renewables revolution as a more credible source for sustainable employment.

Andrew JT Kerr, Castlegate, Jedburgh