Letters: New bridge cash could be better spent eleswhere

You report (News, March 25) that First Minister Alex Salmond, speaking from South Queensferry in his televised response to the UK Budget, described the proposed new road crossing of the Forth there as "Scotland's bridge of recovery".

But there are many, many ways in which 1.6 billion of public monies could otherwise be spent.

Even if one accepts this "saving" of 700 million on the previous estimate for the cost of this additional bridge this is still a figure which, according to Shelter Scotland, would allow the construction of 54,261 new homes with the capacity to house up to 173,913 people.

Given that Audit Scotland has recently reported that 2.25bn is required to repair Scotland's trunk and local roads, this new estimate of the cost of the bridge would allow 71 per cent of all such roads to be brought up to an acceptable standard.

Moreover, such expenditure would provide employment and income to benefit communities across the length and breadth of Scotland - with local firms being far more involved than will ever be the case with a consortium selected to build a bridge whose members are rather spread across the length and breadth of the world.

If Mr Salmond truly wishes to spend for recovery - an honourable choice in and of itself - then he's backed the wrong horse.

Rather than spend 1.6bn on a bridge we don't need, he should have prioritised spending instead on homes, roads, schools and hospitals - for the benefit of the many, not the few.

Lawrence Marshall, Chair, ForthRight Alliance, Rose Street, Edinburgh

Concern develops at city gap site

IT has been recognised locally for some time now that Napier University's development at Sighthill would mean the eventual sale of the stunning campus at Craighouse. And I am not opposed to sympathetic development of a site with arguably the best view in Edinburgh: something that maintains the character of the buildings and enhances the fantastic work carried out by the Craiglockhart Woods Group on the hill.

But I am deeply troubled by your revelation that Mountgrange is one of the companies which is part of the Craighouse Partnership (News, March 26): the company that brought us Edinburgh's most notorious gap site at Caltongate; and which produced a plan for that site quite out of keeping with the needs and aspirations of the community in the Old Town before the development collapsed under the weight of its own hubris.

How about some genuine community planning for a change?

Gavin Corbett, Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart Green Group

Norwegian model is one to follow

CONTRARY to what M Smythe claims (Intertactive, March 26) I am sure the SNP will be only too happy to mention Norway as all the major world wealth tables show that country has more than twice as much wealth per head as the UK.And such was Labour's legacy that most wealth indexes still rank Ireland and Iceland ahead of the UK in 2010.

Having the benefit of independence Norway, with similar population and natural resources as Scotland, built up a sovereign wealth fund now worth 300 billion in reserves and remains one of the richest nations in the world.

Meanwhile we only have a decade of cuts from Westminster to look forward to unless we vote to follow the Norwegian model in May.

Andrew Rosie, MacDowall Road, Edinburgh

Digging to real root of problems

IT is all very well telling us about the financial problems, but why not explain the cause?

Why not issue instructions to everyone and get the problem sorted out sooner, including reducing the price of fuel and scrapping bonuses?

The biggest bonus would be to see the country recover, remove excessive drink and drugs and restore discipline.

CJR Fentiman, Polwarth Gardens, Edinburgh