Letters: Tram project calamities will not be reversed by Rush job

If the current management cannot resolve the dispute with the contractors then they should resign as it is beyond their abilities.

They obviously won't, due to a very heathy salary, so therefore the council should remove them and save on these salaries.

Could either Councillor Jenny Dawe, Councillor Gordon MacKenzie or indeed TIE spokesperson Mandy Haeburn-Little state why the taxpayer is having to foot the bill for yet another highly-paid individual who will probably make no difference to this utter shambles anyway?

David Black, Kenmure Avenue, Edinburgh

Councillors will pay at the ballot box

I AM convinced that the citizens of Edinburgh want their Capital back as a fully functional city as soon as possible.

We are all fed up with the council, TIE, Bilfinger, diversions, cones, shop closures, holes in the road and the whole sorry saga.

The number one priority should be to determine the most efficient and cost-effective way to stop the tram project.

If this means calling a halt to the entire project, so be it. The costs should be determined by an independent audit by Audit Scotland and made public.

Transport Initiative Edinburgh should be deemed incompetent and tossed out without compensation, severance or bonuses.

If agreement cannot be reached with Bilfinger on the tram project then sack them.

All trams, tracks and equipment should be sold to the next idiot council which decides to embark on a tram project.

The council itself will be shown for what it is at the ballot box – ill-advised, incompetent, out of touch with the citizens of Edinburgh, and wrong to have inflicted this white elephant on us.

W Gray, Oxgangs Avenue, Edinburgh

Writing on the wall for beautiful city

THE Royal Mile is one of the most viewed places in the world. Our council sells its image worldwide and asks people to come and see it and to enjoy the sights and history that it offers.

I noticed some graffiti on the side of a building and thought that the council would have it removed for the sake of our city and its reputation.

I was mistaken and the graffiti is now being added to. What is our council doing about it, and is it trying to destroy the city and its reputation that it was elected to look after?

The graffiti on the side of this building looks awful and it must give an impression of despair to anyone living in this city.

When is our council going to start cleaning up and restoring our city back to the way it was before it was elected to look after it? Or is it quite content to leave things the way they are?

Like many other people I have lost faith in this council and the way it is running our city, and the sooner we have an election the better.

We can then remove it for its lack of attention to one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Andrew Murphy, Royal Mile, Edinburgh

On the cusp of a power revolution

THE announcement of the first commercial scale contracts to deliver wave and tidal power shows that Scotland stands on the cusp of a renewable revolution.

The opportunity presented by our natural resources should not be passed up and we have to be prepared to commit the investment both in infrastructure and technology development before the initiative is grasped by foreign competitors.

The government's pledge to upgrade the Beauly-Denny transmission line was pivotal as it will ensure that the power generated in the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters can be exported to the national grid.

But other initiatives are also needed, from housing to technological innovation, for Scotland to capitalise on the potential that exists.

The momentum is with Scotland to be a world leader in the renewable energy market.

Richard Leslie, Solicitor, Tods Murray LLP, Edinburgh

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