Letters: Fine day out at the Botanics ruined by parking penalty

ONE day the other week around 3pm I took my grandchildren to visit the Royal Botanic Garden and parked my vehicle in Arboretum Place, as I did on several occasions during last year.

I purchased a parking permit to the amount of 2.20, which allowed me to park until 5:14pm, and fixed it to the interior of my windscreen.

I returned to my car at 5:05pm. and discovered the penalty notice on my windscreen indicating the reason as "parked without displaying a valid pay and display ticket". Written in hand on the envelope was the following: "min charge 3 pounds in 9 hours bay". The penalty notice had been written at 3:56 pm.

I have written to Parking Services at the address on the penalty notice stating my reasons as below, and await a response.

There are no signs displayed on adjacent street furniture indicating that a minimum charge applies. I assume that this is a new imposition as I parked in the area several times during last autumn and no minimum charge was in force then. If this is the case, surely signs indicating the change should be visible.

If a minimum charge applies, surely a ticket machine should not issue a ticket for a lesser value.

I consider this a shoddy and underhand way of extricating money from visitors and expect a higher standard of behaviour from a city such as Edinburgh.

Clive D Shephard, Castlepark Drive, Fairlie, Ayrshire

Pub is last thing on residents' minds

I FEEL I have to complain about the scurrilous comments by Joss Cameron, a supposed neighbour to the sheltered housing complex in Joppa (News, 27 April).

The depths some people will stoop to to get cheap publicity out of tragedy!

I'm surprised this individual lowers herself to say hello as the residents are "trooping off to the pub"! I don't suppose they could be going down to Portobello to do their shopping or getting a bus into town. The last thing on their minds is the pub!

As a former resident, I know these residents and their families are respectable.

Other families in the street are very friendly and caring.

Who needs enemies when you've got "friends" like Joss Cameron?

John Bain, Manse Court, East Calder, Livingston

Noise nuisance of laminate flooring

I READ the article on noise problems within houses (News, 26 April). There was no mention of the inadequate soundproofing within houses, and there was no mention of laminate/wooden flooring, which increases the noise level for a person living in a property below.

This problem should be addressed, with a possible ban on the fitting of laminate/wooden flooring.

Mr Lloyd Wilson, Bridgeside Avenue, Whitburn

Numbers don't add for Lib Dems

I WAS intrigued to hear Nick Clegg in the last of the leaders' debates comment on the fact that if the Tories were to impose a cap on immigration this would be largely insignificant as 80 per cent of immigrants come from the European Union, the latter already allowed free access to and from the UK.

While I have no truck with the Tories – who are unable to even give a figure for the level of the cap – according to the latest statistics from the European Union statistical agency, Eurostat, around of third of the immigrants to the UK come from the 27 EU countries, below the 40 per cent figure for the EU as a whole.

In addition, according to the Office for National Statistics (February 2010), the number of non-British citizens immigrating long term to the UK in the year to June 2009 was 518,000.

The number of citizens from the eight accession countries, including the likes of Poland and Hungary, was 68,000, 13 per cent of the total.

Immigration is an issue that requires to be debated in a responsible and sensitive manner, and to start with false statistics means that such a debate is becoming increasingly debased.

Alex Orr, Bryson Road, Edinburgh