Letters: Castlebrae high closure | city centre business |

THE proposed closure of Castlebrae High (News, September 11) is not about poor exam results alone, it is about replacing the present building with one which is more suited to a 21st century education facility.

This is very much part of the ongoing regeneration of the Craigmillar Area. Outwith the building of new homes, the community infrastructure has to change too.

Chas Dennis, Niddrie Marischal Road, Edinburgh

Anything that might stimulate growth and business within the city centre has to be welcomed. But it is open to debate if a promotions campaign (News, September 26) is the long term solution.

Such a venture might help to halt the decline temporarily, especially during the forthcoming festive season, but if the centre of Edinburgh is to thrive again, more substantial and on-going steps may have to be taken.

It is a big ask in view of how much some traders may already have lost due to the trams debacle, but they could help themselves by dropping prices and who knows, they might make a profit in the long run.

Whatever is said and done though, it may take many years and considerable incentives if the city centre is to ever make a full recovery from the damage caused by the trams.

Angus McGregor,Albion Road,Edinburgh

Capital investment aids local economy

I am pleased to see the First Minister and Head of COSLA joining forces to call on Scotland’s 32 local authorities to identify more shovel-ready projects for capital 
investment.

As our campaign in the lead-up to this year’s local elections highlighted, capital investment is one of the most efficient ways of generating added value from public spending at a local council level. On average, every £100 of local authority funding 
invested in capital projects has delivered more than £300 in added value to local economies throughout Scotland.

At a Construction summit held by the Scottish Government in July, we raised concerns that not enough was being done to speed up getting shovels into the ground on local government-funded building projects. Since then we have been able to discuss these concerns with Alex Neil and his recent successor as Infrastructure and Investment Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon. I’m confident Ms Sturgeon is giving our concerns her full attention. Central and local government need to focus on getting funded projects moving as quickly as possible through procurement.

It’s only when the work starts on the ground that we’ll see this investment yielding real benefits by directly supporting jobs and apprentices in the building industry.

Michael Levack, Chief Executive, Scottish Building Federation, Crichton’s Close,

Holyrood, Edinburgh