Letters: It'll take more than £3.4m to get back to square one

Notwithstanding the incredulous response from councillors, the 3.4 million to fix Leith Walk (News, July 13) is an underestimate.

There is a very long shopping list to get Leith Walk back to "square one", including:

• Complete renovation of all pavements, kerbs and pedestrian crossing points

• Re-instatement and repair of all damaged or removed street furniture

• Removal of "Third World" lighting cables strung from post to post

• Replacement of temporary barriers and traffic measures

• Repair of bus and cycle priority lanes

• Replanting of all trees damaged during the tram works

• Complete overhaul of waste collection

• Complete overhaul of all bus stops

• Resurfacing of road space, coupled in places with excavation of unsound foundations

• To compensate for the damage to the economic and social fabric of the area, a sustained shop front renovation programme extending from the pilot in Elm Row to the rest of Leith Walk.

My estimate for these works between Picardy Place and the Foot o' the Walk ranges from 10m to 20m.

Yes, money is in short supply, but if a further 200m can be found for the trams (for any of the options, including cancellation), I am sure funding for Leith Walk of the required magnitude can also be identified.

Harald Tobermann, Pilrig Street, Edinburgh

Student fees only to stir up trouble

Alex Orr should dry his crocodile tears (Interactive, July 13). The Scottish Government took the decision to impose fees on students from other parts of Britain - while EU students pay nothing - knowing full well that it would cause a great deal of bad feeling in England.

Indeed, creating ill will and division between Scottish and English people is central to the SNP's dark strategy for achieving its separatist agenda.

Also, Mr Orr should be rather more candid about the fact that EU students don't have to pay and about why this is.

After all, the floodgates argument applies as much to them as to students from England.

The fact is that, under EU law, both Holyrood and Westminster are powerless to do anything about European students.

Otto Inglis, Inveralmond Grove, Cramond, Edinburgh

Constituents must start to come first

Every MP and every councillor, when elected to office, is instructed by the returning officer to serve the constituents they represent.

They are not elected to save "the economy".

In 1960, they decided to stop maintaining law and order, defence and the railways. The political parties adopted policies that did not suit our country and, 50 years later, they are blaming each other for the mess, but not heeding warnings from the voters.

When they (the parties) decide to tell the voters what they, the voters, want to hear, then the parties will have the voters on their side.

CJR Fentiman, Polwarth Gardens EdinburghThe answers . . chapter and verse

Steuart Campbell is disingenuous in positing what he must know is far from the truth, namely that "Christians worship a trinity of gods . . ." meaning that they constitute three separate persons (Interactive, July 1).

The truth is that Christians believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, being God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

The answer to Mr Campbell's question is to be found in its simplest form in the Shorter Catechism, a little booklet containing 107 questions and answers, all backed up by proofs from the Bible.

Question 5 is: Are there more Gods than one? Answer: There is but one only, the living and true God. Question 7 is: How many persons are there in the Godhead? Answer: There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

Donald Jack, Leith

• This correspondence is now closed - Editor