Letters: Proposed parking controls are no benefit to residents

I have not experienced any “haranguing” from Mr Gray or anyone else about this issue, and feel the information circulated has very much assisted me in deciding that I unequivocally oppose the Council’s proposal. I wonder where Mr Quinn got his insider knowledge of Mr Gray’s “skewed vote”?

Given that it is intended to charge motorists to park in the area for a short period mid afternoon, I cannot see how this benefits those of us who work five days a week, using our cars to travel back and forth from the area. I leave for work at 8.30am and return around 5.45pm, and have never experienced any difficulty in finding a parking space on my return.

I wonder, therefore, if the (apparent) groundswell of support for these proposals is coming from our retired or self-employed residents? Granted they have a right to park on the street, as does any other motorist who pays their road tax, however I fail to see how the proposed parking controls are actually going to benefit them in practice. If the issue is commuting motorists, then surely if Mr Quinn has his car parked outside his house between 7.30am-9.00am this should prevent the problem?

It may also be worth while pointing out to Mr Quinn that payment of a resident’s parking permit does not guarantee a parking space. It may, however encourage those residents with driveways and garages to use these rather than park on the road, as a number do at the moment, thereby effectively using up two parking spaces.

I would urge Mr Quinn to think this proposal through a little more, rather than launching a vitriolic and uninformed attack on a fellow resident who happens to hold a different opinion from himself on the subject.

Sheila Taylor, Morningside Drive, Edinburgh

Let’s tell council Lesley’s the man

A transport expert – a professor no less – Lewis Lesley, tells us (Evening News, January 2) that he can get the Edinburgh trams up and running all the way to Newhaven using a different type of tram track within the £776 million budget by 2014. So what do the Edinburgh council chiefs do? Yep – they turn him down! Unbelievable!

Are they on the same planet as the rest of us? I think not!

Taxpayers of Edinburgh, I urge you to get writing about this. We are paying for this tram system and obviously our so-called chiefs haven’t a clue, so we need to tell them to give Lewis Lesley the task and let us get our money’s worth, as well as getting our city centre looking respectable again.

Liz Henderson, Whitson Walk, Edinburgh

Crack down on council sublets

Council tenants who sublet their homes can profit by thousands of pounds despite breaching their tenancy agreements.

This is defrauding taxpayers of between £5 billion and £10 billion.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is one of the few authorities which is tackling this issue and a number of tenants have been prosecuted for fraud.

Why are other local authorities not tackling this issue, especially when there are long housing waiting lists?

The coalition Government is only now looking to close the legal loophole by making subletting a council house a specific criminal offence.

Double standards?

I seem to remember another housing scandal. It involved politicians, second homes, duck houses and switching houses before sale to keep huge, tax-free profits.

Clark Cross, Springfield Road, Linlithgow

Think of others and take litter home

I AM appalled at the disregard for other people’s property shown by the many Edinburgh residents who use the bus stop outside my house.

I take pride in the appearance of my home, yet I find litter thrown into my garden on a daily basis, thanks to the waiting bus passengers who don’t have the courtesy to pocket their rubbish and dispose of it later, in a proper place.

I have petitioned the council to put a bin on the bus stop, but in the meantime, please take your litter with you!

R Walker, Cramond, Edinburgh