Readers' Best Comments

A city pensioner recently discovered that, by not taking advantage of housing benefit, he'd been paying more rent than he needed to for the past nine years, amounting to more than 12,000. Thankfully, the city council offered him a generous refund – of 350. A costly mistake, and one that you can't imagine many of our right honourable members in Westminster making. But where do your sympathies lie?

The mistake is his and them's the rules! I've been on the wrong end of this one in the past myself and I just had to suck it up, like many others too.

Oli, Edinburgh

But what would happen if the council discovered you'd been underpaying council tax for 9 years, would they let you off with making just 3 months back payment? They're still chasing people for unpaid poll tax. The rules should apply the same both ways, but as usual, they are designed to work against the people and in favour of the bureaucrats.

Noxious

So what else is new? Although some of you seem to be far more concerned about the council's crimes against grammar.

Why does the spokeswomen for the council insist on using the conjunctive "we would encourage..." This is totally unnecessary and wrong in this context.

Kate, Zurich

Thanks for that Kate, but we'll leave the final wise words on this subject to Edinburgh's answer to John Lee Hooker.

Woke up dis morning. Man, have I got da blues. Wide awake and moanin. De council rent is dues. Well I done forgot to apply for de Housing Benefit. Betta write to de Evenin News. Diddily diddily. Diddily doos.

cheeses_of_nazareth, Edinburgh

Hibs' season may be going from bad to worse, but at least one ray of sunshine has descended on Leith with the news that Constitution Street is opening to traffic for the first time in nearly two years. Hurray!

Great news for the shopkeepers. Let's hope their till rings with joy for a long time.

The Real Alfonsa Pedrosa, Edinburgh

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for Edinburgh's trams!

Andrew Kent, Edinburgh

Let's hope that this is the beginning of the end of the insane tram project. Gradually re-open all the roads and remove the diversions... Then gradually everyone will forget about the whole thing and the project can be quietly dropped. The only issue will be the millions that have been wasted on this white elephant already. However, look on the bright side – at least a sizeable portion of Edinburgh's underground utilities have been renewed.

Alternative (High-Octane) Fuel Head, Edinburgh

Apologies, but I've just spent the last few years living in a cave...under a rock...on the Moon. Are we getting trams here?

300,000,000 years in the future Edinburgh will just be a giant tram. We'll all be able to holiday together in the south of France by driving there, if we can agree that's where we want to go that year instead of the Canary Islands.

Softly spoken mellow North Korean gentleman

Is it just me, or does this sound a little bit like that episode of Doctor Who that was on the other night?