Letters: Late-night taxi queues not fare if you want quiet night

IT WOULD appear that Edinburgh's taxi drivers are not happy because of the private hire trade and pedicabs that are operating in our city. Are there too many taxis plying for the limited trade in our city just now?

On the Royal Mile there is a taxi rank with a notice stating that no more than three taxis should be there at any given time.

Yet if anyone passes this rank – especially at night – there can be as many as 25 taxis waiting for passengers.

The engines run well into the wee small hours outside the houses that are there, and sometimes there are more taxis there than there are in the train station or at other taxi ranks.

Who enforces the rules on taxi ranks in Edinburgh? Is it still our council or is it the taxi trade?

At one time there were taxi ranks all over Edinburgh, including places such as Waterloo Place and other city centre locations.

Previous councils knew exactly what was going on in the city that they were elected to run, and in the past they enforced the rules that they made.

Does our council think it is right to let taxis queue up beside these residential properties without any restrictions? Or is this just because our council no longer enforces the rules?

Andrew Murphy, Royal Mile, Edinburgh

Scandal should end postal votes move

THE scandalous affair of Labour's Kerry McCarthy's leaking of results of postal votes should surely end forever the idea of adopting an all-postal voting system, as considered by some of our parties.

I would question why such votes were allowed to be opened before polling day as it is my understanding that postal ballot papers must be mixed in with those cast at polling stations before being counted.

The main objection to the extension of postal voting was its liability to fraud in various forms, and it was to counter this that in 2007 the requirement to provide a date of birth and sample signature was introduced.

It seems to me that there is a greater need to increase security at the other end of the process, and that postal returns should be held in a secure location until the appropriate official count begins.

We should also return to the system of restricting postal voting to those physically unable to attend in person.

Robert Dow, Ormiston Road, Tranent

Damage claim is a hole lot of bother

I AM currently involved with a claim against Edinburgh City Council for damage to my vehicle as a result of driving through a large pot hole. The council has a claims handling agent, which is employed to minimise risk to the council and is trustee of the repair fund.

I would like to know who represents the claimant when dealing with such an organisation. The company's website makes great claims about how it protects its customer, ie the council.

Considering the fact that the council is meant to be a public servant, it is a very biased situation I find myself in when battling with its agent. I have had to involve my motor insurer in order to create some weighty representation behind my claim, which has been running for more than two months now.

Graham Tait, Edinburgh

See if your MP is backing campaign

PEOPLE don't choose to have cancer, and they don't choose which cancer they get, but the forthcoming General Election gives us all the opportunity to choose how we treat the one in three people who are unlucky enough to get cancer.

Macmillan has been campaigning to improve the support offered to the two million people living with and beyond cancer; improve access to treatments for rarer cancers; and for better out of hours care for people nearing the end of their lives. I want our local Parliamentary candidates to support these proposals to improve cancer care in the UK.

We need to keep the pressure on and I want to encourage others to get our local parliamentary candidates to sign up to the Vote Cancer Support campaign by going to Macmillan's website: www.macmillan.org.uk/vote.

Gillian McKearney, Edinburgh