Your Say: Logical site for new school has been overlooked

Tel: 0131 620 8692

LISMORE Primary is a logical site for the new Portobello High School. However, councillors and their permanent officials have proved time and again that they are not swayed by common sense or logic, or the education, health and well-being of our children, but only by money.

All they are interested in as a large playing field equalling big bucks from housing developers.

Bingham Park will almost certainly be included in the sell-off.

That is why Lismore is closing and the children are being transferred to Brunstane, which incidentally shares a high boundary wall with one of the busiest roads in Edinburgh, the Milton Link, with high levels of noise and carbon monoxide fumes. This would also be the case against building the new school at Portobello Park, a long, narrow site with its boundary on busy Milton Road East.

This of course would ensure that children of the future would help maintain Scotland's pre-eminent position at the top of the league for asthmatic conditions, lung and heart disease!

If it was decided to build the school on this site it would certainly encroach on the golf course, and would the wooded area on one side of Park Avenue be safe, or become a staff car park?

The council believes that it has been legally cleared to build .. it ain't necessarily so. It would not be the first time the council's lawyers have got it wrong.

I disagree with Stephen McIntyre's assertion (Letters, December 20)that the majority of people want the school in the park.

To my knowledge, the exact opposite is the case, and his insinuation that if you are against the school in the park you are against any is demeaning.

Everyone acknowledges the need for a new school.

If you wish to choose a park then Lismore/Bingham Park, the Jewel park or Meadowfield Park would have the edge over Portobello Park.

If space is at a premium, which it is, why not emulate other countries and create space by reclaiming land from the sea, at the foot of Bridge Street, in the heart of the catchment area?

AJE Shiels, Milton Drive, Edinburgh

Socialist society is answer to problem

MR Delahoy's letter (December 20) was most impressive, describing people's struggle to improve their living standards. As a building worker I recall the bitter struggle over many years to compel our employers to concede a simple ten-minute tea break.

However, his letter also brings to mind New Labour and the middle classes in our present society. Neither of them can envisage the present-day crisis of capitalism which is sinking in economic collapse and growing unemployment. The solution was described many years ago by Robert Tressell when he wrote his masterpiece The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. The solution was, and is now, the building of a socialist society.

Hugh D'Arcy, past president of Scottish TUC, Longcraigs, Port Seton, East Lothian

Give us the same service as Glasgow

THE Glasgow area has had a month of enhanced Sunday train services to cater for the residents' need to access to the city's shops.

Why then does Transport Scotland/ScotRail still deny the folk of the Lothians and Fife an equally good service over these December Sundays?

A two-hourly frequency on the Fife Circle and West Calder is far from attractive for shoppers.

We pay the same taxes, so why don't we receive the same benefits?

Colin C Maclean, Hillpark Avenue, Edinburgh

Great to see legal win for home help

WHAT a joy it was to see a home help winning her court case against a big-time lawyer after taking her case elsewhere (News, December 22).

It's nice to see that the "woman in the street" can be successful in a David versus Goliath-style battle. Well done Jacqueline Quinn!

Mr K Welsh, Easter Road, Edinburgh

Wheeler has case of trams on the brain

COUNCILLOR Phil Wheeler has a serious case of trams on the brain judging by the article regarding space to be made in the Forth Bridge for trams.

Has no-one told him the magnificent rail bridge does the job perfectly well? This man has no idea what he is trying to inflict on everyone and I feel sorry for the people that put him into office, because they probably did not realise what he would get up to once elected.

Where is the business case now, given that BAA are having to sell of Edinburgh Airport? And in what year will the tram pay for itself?

Ray Withey, Leith Walk, Edinburgh

Brown blundering on obliviously

THE comments by Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist, that the UK's temporary cut in VAT would not significantly influence shoppers' behaviour spells a nightmare for Gordon Brown.

Temporarily cutting VAT is described by the economist as not seeming to be "a good idea" – with 2.5 per cent less not perceived by consumers as a real incentive to spend. Mr Blanchard also reiterated the IMF's call that governments should be ready to spend more to stimulate their economies and combat the recession applauding French plans aimed at encouraging consumers to buy cars.

Research published by the Scottish Government has revealed that the 2.5 per cent VAT cut will cost 1bn in Scotland and support 7200 jobs, while a capital investment programme of the same value has the potential to support 14 900 jobs. And the increased economic output impact is much more than double – an extra 1.5bn, compared to 686m.

Increased spend on capital projects is the best way forward. Mr Blanchard knows it, the Scottish Government has highlighted it and other European leaders have recognised it, with only Mr Brown blundering on oblivious.

Alex Orr, Bryson Road, Edinburgh