Letters: Credit crunch should have put brakes on bus repainting

First of all let's be clear about one thing, Lothian Buses is owned by the public purse. Any dividends it pays out go to the shareholding local authority for reinvestment into council services.

Perhaps greater consideration needs to be given to indulgences as this will undoubtedly increase the running costs of the business and therefore potentially reduce the dividends paid to the local authority shareholders.

If it isn't going to boost revenue or passenger usage then the rebranding is a no-no, brand image should not be a primary concern when taxpayers' cash is at risk.

John Leighton, Edinburgh

Time for biomass firm to think again

WE WRITE regarding the proposal by Forth Energy to build a huge biomass plant in Leith Docks (News, 29 March).

This proposal has raised a number of questions and serious reservations in the local Leith community.

There are issues over the scale of the plant required and its visibility throughout Edinburgh as well as Leith, health concerns relating to emissions from the plant, questions about the 'sustainability' of the wood to fuel the plant being shipped in from around the world, the disposal of waste ash and the impact of these issues on the local community.

The proposal also in effect rips up the Leith Docks Development Plan and the associated outline planning permission which envisaged housing 'villages' in the area in question, and compromises the proposed seaward extension of Leith Links and the future of the Waterfront boardwalk plans.

For these reasons as SNP councillors for Leith wards we would ask Forth Energy to think again.

Cllr Rob Munn – SNP Leith ward; Cllr Deidre Brock – SNP Leith Walk ward, City Chambers, Edinburgh

New ways needed to end shortage

THE creation of the National Housing Trust is a welcome move in the right direction for housing in Scotland.

The need for affordable housing in Scotland is at its highest level in recent times; Edinburgh alone needs more than 15,000 additional homes for rent to be built over the next 10 years. The effects of the recession are still being felt by a large proportion of the population.

Redundancies, a lack of mortgage availability and continued uncertainty over long-term employment opportunities have forced people off the property ladder and on to waiting lists for housing association and council housing.

The recession has been a double-edged sword, and the difficulties councils are facing cannot be ignored. Due to building work drying up, many sites which could have housed thousands of people have been mothballed.

Implementation of this new fund will hopefully happen quickly to get builders back into work and people, who desperately need them, into homes.

This scheme could create up to 1,000 homes throughout Scotland and I would hope this would take some of the pressure off both housing association and the council's waiting lists.

However, we still have a long way to go and I would urge the Government to continue to fund and assist the development of innovative ways to make further inroads to addressing the acute housing need.

Keith Anderson, Chief Executive, Port of Leith Housing Association

Holyrood sets bad design example

EDINBURGH is a stunning example of architecture with an eclectic, charming mixture of buildings.

It would therefore be a travesty if this contrast of old and new were to be spoiled if new city centre buildings were to be built without much consideration for what is already up.

Ideally inspiration should be taken from the fine edifices which reflect the character and history of Edinburgh but the last thing anyone would want is newfangled designs which are nothing more than "monstrous carbuncles", incongruous to their historical surroundings, an example of which is the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood!

Angus McGregor, Abion Road, Edinburgh

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