Would pro-bridge brigade be so keen if it was to be built on their doorstep?

Councillors Martyn Day and William Walker wrote quite a considered piece seriously criticising Transport Scotland and its fitness to oversee strategic transportation issues in Scotland, including the choice of the next Forth crossing (Business, 12 November). Most of the subsequent correspondence was at least reasoned.

Now we have pro-bridge, anti- tunnel fanatic Alasdair MacKerron (Letters, 20 November) jumping in to rubbish the immersed tube tunnel proposal. Could it be that the ITT option is just a bit too close to his home in Limekilns?

Would his action group be quite so vociferous in its support of a very large cable-stay bridge if the same type of bridge were proposed near Limekilns, rather than near distant North Queensferry? This structure would be hugely intrusive and environmentally damaging north and south of the Forth, but that doesn't seem to bother Mr MacKerron as it would not directly affect the Limekilns area.

Mr MacKerron has criticised others in print elsewhere for daring to offer technical opinions on matters on which he considers himself an expert. I understand he has no direct design or construction management experience in tunnels or bridges, yet he presents specific engineering arguments on these matters. Mr MacKerron's nimbyism is clearly being encouraged from somewhere else.

GEORGE S McLENNAN, Rintoul Place, Dunfermline, Fife

Public debate about the merits of a bridge or a tunnel for the new Forth crossing are being clouded by rank "nimbyism" on the part of Alasdair MacKerron. Readers will have noted that his address is in Limekilns, near the northern landfall of the tunnel proposal. Of course, Mr MacKerron and StayForth are perfectly entitled to be nimbys and resist the tunnel. However, they should not masquerade as bridge supporters. I challenge the action group to give support to another Transport Scotland option of building a bridge terminating just east of Limekilns.

My view has always been that any crossing should be future proofed by having heavy rail capability and an ambitious future would be TGV mainline trains serving Fife, Aberdeen and the Highlands. It is highly unlikely that a bridge could be built to do the job at economical cost. I don't think the taxpayer would or should sign up to an open-ended deal that depends on the market price of steel. A largely concrete structure built in Rosyth, at the redundant dry dock built for servicing Trident subs, would circulate the taxpayers' pound in the local economy.

(CLLR) IAN CHISHOLM, Lady Nairn Avenue, Kirkcaldy, Fife

Limekilns nimbyist Alasdair MacKerron does his recently-founded campaign in favour of a bridge no credit in his recent tirade against an immersed tube tunnel crossing of the Forth.

His local action group was only founded by him when it became clear that the new Scottish Government would look at the ITT possibility as the next Forth crossing, rather than just another high-level bridge near the existing one.

Would his enthusiasm for another bridge have been so great if a previous proposal for a giant suspension bridge near Limekilns were still on the table? I am confident that then he would then have been uncovering all sorts of arguments against a giant bridge nearby, the same size of bridge he would now wish built over Inverkeithing and the surrounding area.

STEVE HOSSACK, The Latch, Cairneyhill, Fife