Planners in a dead end

The Transport Secretary, Alasdair Darling, tells us Edinburgh must invest in technology to avoid congestive city failure. The First Minister, Jack McConnell, tells us Scotland must invest to arrest the shrinking Scottish population. Spot the contradiction.

Edinburgh has no congestion problem. It has a short-lived rush problem, which, with a shrinking populace, can only improve.

The rush-hour problem has been exacerbated by the schemes of Professor David Begg and his disciples to reverse years of good planning by narrowing perfectly good highways, choking streets with ill-placed pedestrian crossings, contaminating the environment with unnecessary signs and devices, and providing an ever-upward expansion of the empty bus fleet.

Outside rush-hour, Edinburgh is as quiet as any other small city.

Edinburgh does not need trams, buses, satellite navigation or road pricing; and it does not need more ways to waste our money.

WG SCOTT

Charlotte Square

Edinburgh