Letters: Cleaning up after public not responsibility of businesses

WHILST Simon Musgrove may have a point about the lack of public toilets in Edinburgh (Interactive, 20 April), I was amazed at his suggestion that a possible solution would be for it to be made law that cafes and bars allow the public to use their toilets.

Would Mr Musgrove like to suggest who will pay for the extra cleaning involved, the disposables used – hand towels and soap – and the inconvenience caused to the paying customers of such bars and toilets when they have to queue behind members of the public making use of the facilities?

It may seem to him that this is the simple solution but yet again, the responsibility for providing facilities which should be funded by the council would be shifted to business owners.

Surely it is enough that we pay council tax as individuals and exorbitant business rates without also being expected to provide public toilets.

Sheila Fraser, Beveridge Close, Dalkeith

Disgusting use of building as toilet

SIMON Musgrove might not take such a lenient view of those who urinate in public if he lived in the city centre as I do.

Each night our building is used as a toilet several times and the smell is disgusting. Those who choose to urinate in public show no consideration for the homes of others and deserve to be prosecuted.

Gavin Fleming, Webster's Land, Grassmarket, Edinburgh

Sympathise with real victims of ash

I CANNOT understand the bleating of business and commerce types over "lost millions" due to the ash eruption from a volcano in Iceland (News, 20 April).

Hundreds of millions of pounds are being lost, we are informed. How can you lose something you never had?

While businessmen whine over their plight, my sympathies are with the villagers in Iceland who find themselves deep in ash through no fault of their own.

Missed business opportunities and cancelled fights home for holidaymakers are merely an inconvenience.

Nobody here has to shovel up all that ash.

Mr A Morris, St Leonard's Lane, Edinburgh

Old chocolates not a first-class prize

I WAS surprised to receive a phone call from my local post office telling me I had won their local prize. Apparently when I recently returned a parcel I was entered into their local and national prize draw.

I was presented with a small hamper filled with chocolates along with a 2010 diary and calendar.

Imagine my surprise when I opened it and found that almost all the chocolate was out of date – one item even went out of date in 2009!

I find it disturbing that out of date products are being given out as prizes.

Gillian Brown, Tollcross

Where the Eck has the money gone?

ALEX Salmond has just stood down as a member of the House of Commons. He applied for 65,000 of public money for life outside politics. He has previously earned two salaries from the public purse.

As this is public money, why hasn't Mr Salmond told us how much of this money is going to charity, and incidentally which charities?

This is public money, and it should be accounted for.

Diana Mackenzie, Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh

Local champions .. from Hampshire

LIVING in a marginal constituency, I am inundated by election materials but on reading the small print it seems that only the SNP of the main challengers are supporting Edinburgh business.

Whereas the Labour and Tory materials are printed in Glasgow, the Lib Dem leaflets are printed in deepest Hampshire. So much for their claims of being local champions.

Fraser Grant, Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh