Scotland on Sunday readers' letters: We should work together to protect our green spaces

In advance of the CALA Consultation, Pentland Hills Labour Party has major general concerns about the CALA application to build in Currievale. The plans have serious flaws centring on traffic numbers, pollution, moving Currie High School, and building in the Green Belt.

Green Belt areas around the Pentland Hills are being targeted as a result of moves from the Scottish Government to allocate more land for housing development.

Green Belt areas around Juniper Green, Currie, Balerno and Ratho are being targeted as a result of moves from the Scottish Government to allocate more land for housing development. While doing this, unfortunately, they fail to protect Green Belt and prime agricultural land. This destructive process is being repeated all over Scotland

To be highly sustainable, developments need to be near good public transport, with work and jobs nearby, and public indoor/outdoor spaces for leisure and entertainment.

Planning must also take account of air quality and pollution, so no more ribbon development to the city outskirts, and a big ‘NO’ to building on good agricultural land. We need it for food! Future growth should mainly be in brownfield town sites, to achieve a more compact city.

We are all agreed that we need to build new houses. However, we also need to work together to protect green spaces.

We need a well-thought out planning strategy, which gives long term, outcomes that are good for people, and good for the environment. Our Labour MSPs will be supporting this at Holyrood.

Anne Wimberley, Edinburgh

Need to know

I read with indignation that the Scottish Government have colluded with Public Health Scotland to exaggerate the Track and Trace scheme in Scotland. They worked together to prepare a script for Nicola Sturgeon to dodge questions if asked by journalists if this fact had come to light.

This shows that there is corruption in our public services and I am horrified that an establishment such as Public Health Scotland are prepared to change figures to help the Scottish National Party to make false statements on the state of the health of the whole nation and there is therefore no credibility left for the PHS if they are prepared to change figures to help a political party look as if it has succeeded in reducing the number of Covid-19 cases just to look good.

This cannot continue and a full investigation should be held and Public Health Scotland should be investigated into this whole debacle.

They called it a 'mistake' and came to light during a 'data quality assurance exercise'. That is not what I and many others would call it. This information was known to the First Minister and she chose to accept the errors. This is surely behaviour unbecoming of a minister of state. This is a life or death situation and we need to know the truth.

Valerie Stewart, East Kilbride

Debt ends dream

The UK Covid-19 debt has now risen to a massive £2.19 trillion and given Scotland's share would be approx 12 per cent this now ends the independence dream as Scotland could not possibly survive independence without the wider spread resources of the UK.

Any vision of an independent Scotland would now see a severe contraction of pension and benefits for those living in Scotland and a bleak financial future struggling with the inherited debt.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Aberdeen

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