Letters: Council has not learned from previous mistakes

COULD someone from TIE, or the council, please explain publicly how it comes to be that a tram line which "will be profitable from day one" also requires a "bus to trams subsidy thought to run to many millions of pounds a year"? Are they called trams because they are Totally Ridiculous Accounting Mismanagement?

Surely I am not alone in perceiving some contradiction in these public utterances?

Whilst on the subject of absurd unaffordable vanity projects, some years ago countless thousands of pounds were wasted on a fruitless consultation exercise in to the establishment of a World Trade Centre to form the "jewel in the crown" of the proposed Waterfront development.

Does our council never learn from its previous mistakes?

David Williamson, Haddington Place, Edinburgh

A different story on the buses

LOTHIAN Buses won't operate our local 13 bus service, instead we have a very infrequent hourly service.

The day tickets are not interchangeable. The councillors say they cannot cross-subsidise our 13 from the profitable parts of other Lothian Buses services. How is it that when a high-profile loss-making service – the trams project– needs a cross subsidy they are falling over backwards to offer a four-year subsidy?

Colin C Maclean, Hillpark Avenue, Edinburgh

Posts are crucial to running school

THE only part of Helen Martin's diatribe in her article 'Budget cuts help us trim excess "luxuries"' (News, September 27 which could possibly be deemed to be accurate, is that she left school in 1971.

That was almost 40 years ago, and she made that distance from education painfully obvious in her comments. I worked for 22 years in one of Edinburgh City Council's schools as a clerical assistant under an administrative assistant, whose contribution to the smooth-running of the school was invaluable.

The requirements of the education department, and ultimately the government, necessary for the holistic care of children attending school, are vast. The admin assistant put in many extra hours in order to fulfil these requirements. Without extra remuneration, may I add.

Seven years ago, under the McCrone Agreement, it was decided to employ business managers to assist the senior management team. The role of the business manager in a school is to alleviate the workload of the senior managers, with duties covering, amongst numerous others, absence management, facilities management and IT. The admin assistants' job title then changed to bursar. The bursars' workloads altered to include recruitment, HR, SEEMIS, (which is the schools administration package), SQA, and school lettings, which incorporates an income target set by the council, along with many other tasks. Both these posts are frontline and are fundamental to the learning and teaching in secondary schools. How dare Helen Martin suggest otherwise.

Olive Beaton, Fountainhall Road, Edinburgh

A wee bit of an overreaction?

AS a responsible dog owner living in Dunbar, I have been well aware of the many issues regarding the problem of dog fouling. Out of respect for the lovely county I reside in, I always pick up my dog's 'poo'.

However, imagine my shock and surprise when I was verbally abused by the owner of a restaurant, for daring to allow my dogs to urinate outside her premises! This particular 'lady' has harassed not only me, but members of my family, on several occasions.

As I said, I pride myself on being a responsible dog owner, to the extent of picking up 'rogue dog poo'.

What next? Should I take a jug, in order to catch my dog's urine, or maybe it would be an idea to have my dogs fitted with a catheter bag! I'd love to see the expression on my vet's face if I requested that.

Louise Kennedy, High Street, Dunbar, East Lothian