Letters: Porty protesters have put themselves before pupils

The legal decision regarding Portobello Park was both surprising and disappointing. It prevents the building of a desperately needed Portobello High School.

Our elected representatives need to do everything in their power to ensure the communities of Bingham, Brunstane, Christians, Duddingston, Durhams, Joppa, Magdalene, Mountcastle, Northfield, Parson’s Green, Piershill, Portobello and Willowbrae will as soon as possible have access to a high school which is fit for purpose, safe and allows our children to be educated to the best possible standard.

Portobello Park is the least worst option for the new school. Edinburgh City Council carried out extensive consultation on this and there are no other credible alternatives.

PPAG represent a very small number of people within our community. They place more importance on their own immediate amenity than that of the community as a whole.

They have made numerous statements which show their green credentials for what they really are – greenwash. They have proposed other parks instead. This common good land should be made to work for the common good of our community.

There is clear majority support for the building of this school on Portobello Park. We have a project which has planning permission and a contract agreed – shovel ready, just what we need for the building industry.

And let’s not get sidetracked by discussions which are non-starters – in particular the idea that Portobello High School could be built in Craigmillar on the site of Castlebrae (well outwith the catchment).

We need a school which is centrally located within a reasonable-sized catchment in order to facilitate active travel.

Schools are central to a community.

Lee Kindness, Esplanade Terrace, Edinburgh

Good move to keep space safe

Although I don’t live in Portobello, I was delighted with the appeal court’s ruling over the Portobello Park site, which ensures the safety of common good land from development by local authorities.

I remember from six years ago that the council’s initial plan was to fill up the rest of the park with housing development.

I hope now that a new site will be found and work started quickly.

Oula Jones, Hart Street, Edinburgh

Keep allotment vandals off parks

It is true, as Gina Davidson says (Not a patch on real allotments, News, September 13), that there are many gap sites in the city that could be given over to allotments.

Some of these are parks, which the city council has attempted to slice up for this purpose.

Fortunately it was persuaded to resist that temptation in my area, but one worries that the parks are still not safe from such vandalism.

Steuart Campbell, Dovecot Loan, Edinburgh

No doubt over EU future of Scotland

Much news coverage has been devoted to whether an independent Scotland would automatically be part of the European Union or would have to negotiate its entry.

Many EU experts and academics, such as Emile Noel, secretary general of the European Commission, and European Court of Justice judge, Lord Mackenzie-Stuart, have already confirmed that Scotland is part of the territory of the European Union and the people of Scotland are citizens of the EU – there is no provision for either of these circumstances to change upon independence.

Scotland and what remains of the UK will both be successor states, with exactly the same status within the EU, not accession countries.

If the unionists want to argue that Scotland would not continue to be a member, neither would what is left of the UK, as independence would lead to the creation of two new states, both in the same legal boat.

In addition to this there is now a new clause as a result of the Lisbon Treaty, conveniently forgotten by unionists, that requires negotiation for a member state to cease to be in the EU.

Despite unionist scaremongering all the evidence points to the fact that an independent Scotland will remain an integral part of the European Union.

Alex Orr, Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh