Letters: If you are in a hole, don't start digging any deeper

Why any Scottish Government would want to pour yet more money into the failed trams project is beyond belief. Is Mr Hewitt not aware that the city council is trying to make savings of 90 million?

And it only takes a casual glance at our city roads and pavements to realise that we are sinking into a Third World level of public administration.

If the city council could actually get the basics right, this would be a start, yet they live in a starry-eyed world where they want to stop buses from travelling along Princes Street and George Street so that Edinburgh can emulate New York or Copenhagen.

At the same time the trams project infrastructure is only a quarter complete with three quarters of the money spent!

This is happening while the council studiously disregards a report by its own consultants that 134,500 households will suffer worse air pollution due to the tram project.

It is time the council started to care for the residents of the city instead of allowing their environment to be seriously degraded by a misguided project.

Allan Alstead, Moray Place, Edinburgh

Cuts could start with councillors

EDINBURGH City Council wants to cut staff numbers.

I suggest the number of councillors be cut too. In a ward with four elected councillors this be could be cut down to three.

DR Watt, Bellevue Place, Edinburgh

Missed chance for BlindCraft staff

HAVING followed the BlindCraft story, I think Lesley Hinds' reference to Labour's budget proposals is misleading (Interactive, February 18). The council director of finance ruled that the Labour budget was unsustainable and those trying to make political capital out of the issue have not provided any viable alternative.

As I understand the position, it was the unions who came up with the suggestion that BlindCraft workers go on a three-day week at a cost of 650,000 a year and this was agreed to by the council administration and by the Labour party, who even included a provision for this figure in their council budget.

It is unfortunate that the workers, the majority of whom are able bodied, turned down the proposals and left the council with no alternative but to close BlindCraft as it would be cheaper giving each worker 30,000 a year to stay at home. Given the UK cuts, this is not sustainable.

Janice Thompson, Walter Scott Avenue, Edinburgh Superstore plan is best for key site

I WRITE in response to the article 'We can do it if we B&Q it (News, February 17)' regarding our application to redevelop the B&Q on Inglis Green Road as a Sainsbury's store.

The article quoted an e-mail exchange in which an Edinburgh City Council planning officer claimed: "The fact that the current owners have allowed the site to become an eyesore is not reason to approve a development of this scale".

As the owners of the site, we object strongly to this inaccurate comment. This unit is still the responsibility of B&Q under the terms of our lease, despite them vacating in 2007.

B&Q has continued to fulfil its security and maintenance obligations. Indeed, last week contractors were on site attending to vandalism and other issues including the leaking roof.

Factory units to the rear of our site, which have been unoccupied since 2001, have suffered repeated vandalism and fire damage. The decline of both sites is a regrettable but inevitable consequence of their being vacant for so long.

Our proposals are the only ones that can bring this key site back into productive use. The council rejected previous plans for a new B&Q on the site, the net result of which was that B&Q moved to the edge of town. This investment has overwhelming community support, and will provide great benefits to this derelict site.

Alex Brodie, director, Morbaine, Widnes, Cheshire