Letters: More recycling would add to city's waste mountain

It is unacceptable that waste is piling up in the area around the Royal Mile, one of the most famous streets in the world and one of which Edinburgh should be proud.

Instead, traders are worried about the menace of rats being attracted to uncleared rubbish.

This is a situation that would not be tolerated in the Third World, so why are we having to put up with it here?

To add insult to injury, environment leader Councillor Robert Aldridge has talked up a plan to collect food slops deposited in recycling boxes to be left out by residents.

The council cannot cope with the waste collections we have at the moment. Please don't make things any worse.

Kate Colquhoun, Northfield, Edinburgh

Positive PR or taken for a ride?

A WORRYING line in your article "Half-mile stretch could open in month" (News, January 4) sums up TIE's approach, "with the possibility that the public could be taken on board the vehicles at a later date as part of a PR exercise for the beleaguered project". Do they really think this will be a positive PR exercise or are we being taken for another ride?

The Gogar depot probably cost something in the region of 80 million.

Even being optimistic with trams running to St Andrew Square, it will only ever be used to run six trams, yet it is designed to hold and service 37 trams. Even if you write off the capital cost over 30 years this will mean that every tram used will cost 0.5m each per year to run even before you factor in the running costs (including 24-hour running mentioned in the article).

Given TIE's past belligerence and the results of the adjudications to date, do they really think Bilfinger Berger is going to roll over and allow the project to ramp up next month?

This brings us full circle to TIE's original problem of not being willing to accept or more recently able to afford the gross incompetences of their contract, ie the cost of design changes and delays due to the utilities.

Don't bet on mediation delivering anything more than further delays.

John RT Carson, Kirkliston Road, South Queensferry

Concerns over important lifeline

IN the comprehensive spending review, the Chancellor announced that the government would be removing the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance for those people who live in residential care homes.

Disability charities and organisations, such as Mencap, are campaigning against this decision. We are all very concerned that many people with a learning disability will no longer be able to afford to go out and meet with friends and families, participate in external social activities and engage with their local communities.

I believe the government has misunderstood how disabled people use this important benefit. Without this vital lifeline, many disabled people in residential care will lose much of their independence.

Lynda Girvan, Robert Fergusson Unit, Royal Edinburgh Hospital

Give fluoride call the brush-off

THE call from Britain's top dental body for Holyrood to add fluoride to Scotland's water must be strongly resisted.

The British Dental Association (BDA) claims that adding this chemical to our water would help to fight the appalling tooth decay still prevalent in some parts of Scotland.

However, even by their own admission, the dental health of 11-12-year-olds has improved dramatically in recent years.

It would be a great pity if the whole of Scotland was to have chemicals added to its water supply to tackle a problem that is relatively isolated.

We have a unique reputation in Scotland for the purity of our water. Let us not undermine this in a knee-jerk response to the BDA's demands.

Struan Stevenson MEP