Letters: Don’t blame local butchers for supermarket meat mess

This could be his last, though. Nothing to do with the fact that people aren’t buying from him – he is rushed off his feet – but the total ignorance of the general public.

If this “horse meat fiasco” had been happening in the local butchers they would be condemned/shut down/put out of business just like many of my dad’s butcher friends were after the BSE fiasco, the steak pie problem and the foot and mouth disease.

But these huge supermarkets and food companies are being investigated.

Why should these big companies get away with it? Why are they not taking all lines off the shelves until they can prove where the meat came from?

My dad is unable to accept meat into his shop without proof of where the meat originated from. Why aren’t the big companies the same?

The problem is Joe Public thinks that everyone is the same. My dad is now having to put up with comments about horse meat in his sausages when he doesn’t deserve it.

Please help educate the public about the strict process that local butchers have in place to stop anything like this happening in their shops. Make them realise that the supermarkets/large food producers are getting away with this when they shouldn’t.

Sara-Jayne Reid, Burnbrae Place, Bonnyrigg

Funds will help to boost the market

I WRITE to welcome the Scottish Government’s decision to allocate an extra £20 million to its shared equity schemes to help prospective home buyers (News, February 19).

These funds will be vital in helping households get on and up the housing ladder. Extra support for the Open Market Shared Equity scheme, which helps first time buyers purchase an existing home on the open market, is especially welcome. I believe that the Scottish Government has focused too much of its attention on stimulating new build sales despite existing homes constituting over 80 per cent of the total housing market and it is encouraging to see ministers recognise the importance of the existing home sector.

A rejuvenated housing market will provide a firm foundation for Scotland’s economic recovery. Each transaction keeps the market moving forward, impacting the local economy, from van hire to home furnishing companies, at each step of the process, thereby generating the activity needed to promote and sustain growth.

Our figures indicate pent-up demand for home ownership among first-time buyers, but a restrictive lending environment has slowed market recovery. The funds should begin to help alleviate this bottleneck.

Malcolm Cannon, chief executive, ESPC, Edinburgh

Glass is half-full about city future

Although I wouldn’t go as far as to say Edinburgh is a city in decline, there are obviously areas which are in much need of improvement.

Princes Street has certainly seen better days what with its empty, rundown shops and a trams project that has been a shambles. However, if this most illustrious of streets were to undergo some sort of renaissance, the trams project finally reaches completion and other areas of the city are given a facelift, Edinburgh’s future as a popular visitor destination could be assured.

Angus McGregor, Albion Road, Edinburgh

Views sought on community land

I WRITE regarding the item about potential community ownership of Craiglockhart woods (News, February 16).

The Craighouse Partnership has applied for planning permission to develop the former Napier University campus at Craighouse and this is currently making its way through the planning system. No decision has been reached.

Quite separately, some residents in the community have raised the prospect of the rest of Easter Craiglockhart Hill –that is the land outside of the proposed development site – being protected from commercial development by being placed in community ownership. That land includes the current local nature reserve and land in council ownership.

There is a public meeting tomorrow at 7.30pm at Meggetland Sports Centre.

Gavin Corbett, Green councillor for Fountainbridge / Craiglockhart