Letters: Gritting crews, don't leave our side streets on sidelines

It is a very challenging job to keep our roads clear and gritted to make them safe for driving. But the situation now in Edinburgh's side streets is diabolical.

All the side streets are getting more dangerous with every day that goes by. I live in the Murrayfield/Balgreen area and none of the side streets have been cleared or gritted since the snow fell 12 days ago so now we must have at least six inches or more of compacted ice and it is the same scenario for the majority of side streets in the city.

Cars get stuck and people have to dig their cars out, hence leaving large ruts in ice on the only driveable part of the road, making it even more dangerous.

Midlothian Council has been moving all the mounds of icy snow from the side of the roads via loading tons of snow on to trucks and dumping all the snow in wasteland, why can Edinburgh not be doing this as well instead of just sweeping it to the side of the road and leaving it to freeze making a bad situation a whole lot worse.

People abandoning cars at the side of the roads in town is also adding to the problem of getting the roads cleared. Get the cars lifted and have the car owner pay the costs. All the abandoned cars, some left 3-4ft away from pavements are hindering the streets getting cleared of snow. I am a driver but I will not take my car out in these conditions.

Every time we have snow/ice we have the same problems albeit this year has been the worst ever. Come on Edinburgh, get a grip and clear our side streets.

S Young, Saughtonhall Place, Edinburgh

Please keep track of all your buses

ON Monday, after a horrendous day of snow, I left my work and was told by the bus tracker that a 41 was due in ten minutes.

It soon became apparent that it wasn't coming. I started walking and got home an hour and half later to Blackhall following the 41 route all the way. No 41 buses came. There were none.

Lothian Buses should have either used the technology to say which services were off or not have the trackers working at all.

Some people waited an hour or more for a bus that was never coming.

This was undoubtedly repeated across the city for other bus services.

Dear Lothian Buses, a "live" tracker cannot be live when it's not even attached to a bus! Please take heed and do not add to folks' misery by giving them false hope through spurious information.

G Barraclough, Blackhall, Edinburgh

Thanks to drivers and support staff

I WANT to express my thanks to all of those who operate bus services in Scotland for the very hard work they are putting in to get people to and from their destinations.

All of Scotland is facing very hard conditions and going about normal activities is proving hard. Many journeys are essential as without people getting to work, others would be in danger or vulnerable.

In such times the availability of bus services is so valued and I know that bus operators, their drivers, the mechanics, supervisors, cleaners, the people giving out information are all working so hard to keep the buses on the road for as long as is safe to do so.

Joan Aitken, Traffic Commissioner for Scotland

Plugging in to 'tainted' energy

THE cold weather continues and pundits say it will continue until March. Last year the wind turbines hardly turned and it will be similar this year.

The Neta website shows that at present wind is only contributing 0.3 per cent of the UK electricity demand.

Every day for the last 12 days the interconnector from France has been running at maximum transmission pushing electricity into our grid at a high tariff.

The French produce more than 75 per cent of their electricity from nuclear energy.

How does the anti-nuclear lobby feel about receiving this "tainted" energy? Will they refuse to allow it into their houses?

Clark Cross, Springfield Road, Linlithgow