Letters: We've got the tools, so let's go to work on the economy

Just a glance at the Poetry Library or Storytelling Centre will tell you that we still have architects that are more than capable of working to a human scale . . . and we have talented builders and their tradesmen starving for work.

More importantly we have tens of thousands of homeless families living in council provided bed and breakfast, and sub-standard hotel accommodation.

Scotland needs a political party with the courage to house our homeless - with a promise to build 10,000 quality, small modular houses a year and save our building industry as it does so. All the Government lacks is the will . . . time for one of our would-be First Ministers to step up to the plate.

David Fiddimore, Calton Road, Edinburgh

God save us all from this waste

THE news that the council in Edinburgh is spending 115,000 of taxpayers' money for an artist to burn a sculpture of the head of Jesus is beyond belief (News, April 27).

Just because we have the personal freedom to do this in our country does not mean it is right and should happen.

This is obscene on so many levels, and at a time when the council does not collect bins on time, the roads are stricken with potholes, and no new schools have been built for four years in our capital - I really despair. Indeed I am tempted to say God help us all.

M Smythe, Dalry Road, Edinburgh

Dump bosses and give bin men job

WITH the possible exception of Jenny Dawe's household, most Edinburgh council tax payers will have experienced refuse collection delays. What to do?

Just let the municipal cleansing operatives sort it out themselves. Give them what they want and then sack all the so-called managers who, let's face it, are no more in charge than TIE is of the tram fiasco.

Go for it scaffies, show them how to run a business! And with the departure of the plonker management, it's bound to save money.

JL Smith, Allan Park Drive, Craiglockhart, Edinburgh

Team teaching is no disadvantage

ROD Grant's piece on team teaching was hugely off the mark (News, April 26). There are no classes with anywhere near 50 pupils as suggested, and we don't use team teaching to save money.

We only introduce it when there are accommodation issues in our most popular schools.

The reality is team teaching doesn't save money as there are two teachers in a class of usually between 30 and 40 which is a more generous pupil-teacher ratio than in a class of 25 with a single teacher.

This local authority has had team teaching in some of its primary schools since 2007.It is a tried and tested model and we've had positive feedback from staff and pupils alike.

The sharing of tasks, peer support, the use of the particular talents of individual teachers and the shared breadth of talents available are all advantages.

Team teaching in no way disadvantages pupils who share the experience and knowledge of two teachers, and it is a successful way in which to maximise the number of catchment pupils who can attend their local school.

Cllr Marilyne MacLaren, education convener

Is there a monster on our doorstep?

YOUR article "Radiation leak sparks probe into safety at Torness" (News, April 22) fully explored in black and white print an unknown terror.

I often pass those enormous and ominous-looking vats, which blight our beautiful landscape, and question its dangerous and ugly motive - just think Japan and the horrific consequences. Mankind has gone too far.

Have we created a Frankenstein's monster? And is radioactive fallout the reason for the alarming rise of cancer?

Sylvia M De Luca, Baberton Park, Juniper Green, Edinburgh