Letters: Council's obstructive stance over Seafield really stinks

IT TOOK more than 50 years for it to be officially accepted that Seafield sewage works was creating an "odour nuisance" and blighting the lives of thousands of residents in Leith.

And that was only after an eight-year campaign from the Links Residents Association which through a parliamentary petition forced this ineffective council to serve an odour abatement order.

A senior council official explained to me (unofficially) that it was not in the wider interests of the city to obstruct (through legal action) the essential work of sewage disposal and that Leithers would simply have to continue living inside clouds of foul-smelling hydrogen sulphide for the greater good of Edinburgh.

This thinking has clearly not disappeared because Edinburgh City Council is now obstructing our lawyer's attempts to prepare a case against Scottish Water. A request has been made (under the Freedom of Information Act) for documents which would support our claim that this utility company has not done enough to control the odours produced by the Seafield works.

However, the council is refusing to hand over any documentation on the grounds that it would create too much work for council officials. This, incidentally, is in contrast to SEPA and Scottish Water who have provided our lawyers with all of the documents requested.

This response is of course symptomatic of a view operating at a senior level within the council that the concerns of ordinary people living within Edinburgh are not a priority and are a distraction from its more important work of filling in forms and ticking boxes.

R Kirkwood, spokesman, Leith Links Residents Association

Recycling plastic is not so fantastic

I AGREE to a certain extent with Jim Taylor about recycling bins (Interactive, 6 May). I believe that the biggest amount of waste by volume is plastic.

Unfortunately there are too many types of plastic, some types can be recycled and some can't. I do not understand why the government does not force all companies to do away with excessive packaging and the stuff they do use must be either 100 per cent recyclable or 100 per cent biodegradable.

Since I live in a detached house I would prefer an extra wheelie bin for plastic, cardboard, glass, metal, etc. I would even be willing to pay for one. I think the plastic would be much better than the food waste recycling, as this would cause smells.

Obviously not everyone can have wheelie bins, but the option should be available. There is a lot more plastic waste than food waste.

David Bryden, Crewe Road South, Edinburgh

English voted for change unlike us

IT IS disturbing to see which way the Scottish electorate voted.

If you had your car for 13 years, and it continually breaks down, surely it is time to change it.

The Labour party has been in power for the same length of time and a change was needed.

The English realised this and voted for change, the Scots voted for the status quo.

This was not a vote for the good of the country.

Mr Ritchie, Livingston

Please can we have votes back?

NOW that my vote is out of the window and that we now know what the main parties are really like, can we please have an immediate election?

Tom Reilly, Esslemont Road Edinburgh

Wooden flooring ban sounds good

I OFTEN wonder if the people who live in tenement flats and sand their floorboards have actually lived underneath such flooring. I'm sure if they have they would avoid this type of flooring like the plague.

I urge the Scottish Government to include in the Housing Bill review a ban on the use of sanded floors in all tenements and flatted dwellings, and let people enjoy their own homes again, without feeling that they share their property with the neighbours who live above them.

Jackie Smyth, Elgin Terrace, Edinburgh