Letters: Kick some backsides and save tax payers' money

I hope for her sake and the city's she lives up to it, for she has a major job on her hands.

Your story '1.3bn headache for city's new chief' (News, January 5) says the city council's debt stands at 1.24 billion and is expected to rise beyond 1.3bn by the end of the current financial year.

It has nearly doubled in five years and now equates to roughly 2756 for every city resident.

Our city councils have had a history of inefficiency and questionable value for money. For modern examples of this one need only look at the examples of the woefully over-optimistic trams project, which has clearly not been scrutinised at an acceptable level.

And as an example of day-to-day duties, how about the way in which rubbish has been allowed to build up over the festive season?

Currently, we are asked to pay a large amount of our monthly income in the shape of council tax.

I dearly hope that Sue Bruce can kick some backsides and produce some savings so that council tax payers will finally get value for money.

Randall McLean, Portobello, Edinburgh

Watch those rats and foxes, Mickey

OUR forward-thinking council has seen an opportunity to enhance the visitors' "Edinburgh Experience".

The streets now have the look and smell of the "Auld Toon". The next stage will be to empty your chamber pots out the window.

The wartime experience of potholed bomb-damaged streets has also proven a hit. Some of the older visitors have been stunned by how real the craters look.

The teenage drunks and the old pickpockets that haunt the Old Town as in days gone by are also proving popular with all. There seems to be no trouble attracting people to play the parts of beggars and drunks, although some of them do take their role too far.

Well done this council, soon the Edinburgh Experience will be one of the biggest living history venues in the world.

Watch your back Disney, Edinburgh is coming and its giant rats and foxes will make mincemeat out of your mouse.

Paul French, Saughton Mains Street, Edinburgh

Crucial to invest in construction

Latest figures from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply showing the Scottish construction sector going back into decline should set alarm bells ringing in the corridors of the Scottish Parliament as negotiations intensify amongst MSPs over next year's Scottish budget.

They follow a Scottish Building Federation membership survey, published in December, which found 60 per cent of construction firms reporting a reduced order book compared to the same time last year and more than 60 per cent expecting to have to reduce the size of their workforce in 2011.

With the Scottish Government's draft budget for 2011-12 proposing a 21 per cent cut to the capital heading of the budget, compared to a 2 per cent cut in revenue spending, the construction sector is bearing the brunt of public funding cuts. Investment in housing, schools, hospitals and infrastructure will suffer, placing the fragile recovery of the Scottish economy at risk. Investment in capital projects must become a far greater priority if we are to avoid another year of construction in the doldrums.

Michael Levack, Scottish Building Federation

Young let down by the parties

IT is all very well to complain about the youth of our country and their behaviour, but why were they encouraged by the lack of interest shown in them by all the parties?

Up until 1960 there was something for all, but civil liberties considered that the wearing of any form of uniform was an infringement on freedom. That may be why so many young people are killed on our roads – because they don't like rules and regulations.

CJR Fentiman, Polwarth Gardens, Edinburgh