Letters: Services we pay for going to waste has become norm

It would seem the much heralded "big society" has arrived. Sort your own rubbish into boxes you have paid for, clean your own streets of snow and spend a penny to spend a penny.

Wonderful ideas in principle if it wasn't for a major fly in the ointment - council tax. This means we have already paid the council for these services.

As such, shouldn't we expect these things among the council's first priorities? After all, they are among the statuary duties you would assume the council is obligated to fulfil.

Here in the west of the city we now come to expect our refuse will be uplifted late every week, in fact it has become the norm. Friday collection on a Monday with a knock-on effect. On top of this our public areas and streets are a mess.

If this is the result of the much heralded "modernisation of service" then I would hate to see what the future holds.

If, as I suspect, the run-down of these services is part of the parcelling off of services to make them more attractive to the private sector, then I have to wonder if profit is the aim.

We are seeing the decimation of our services while the council seeks to raise funds for larger and larger projects to go alongside the other unfinished white elephant not running along Princes Street.

It must be time to look again at the priorities of this council. Still, it has ensured the city is spoken of all around the world.

Paul French, Saughton Mains Street, Edinburgh

Still waiting for answers over ME

THE PACE trials described in your article "Is exercise always good for the body" (News, April 15) have been criticised internationally for not using strict enough criteria to exclude people with general fatigue caused by conditions other than ME.

PACE concluded that cognitive behavioral therapy and graded exercise therapy can be moderately useful for some people with fatigue as defined by the criteria of the study. While people with ME are fatigued, this symptom is one of many and the fatigue is different to that experienced by people with, say, depression.

Members of our ME self-help group, edmesh, are concerned that so much money has been spent on trials for treatment which do not begin to address the problems suffered by people with ME, but which were funded at great expense to do so.

Instead they were focused on the theory of "false illness belief" - a degrading phrase and a result of the input of psychiatrists who have unfortunately become part of the diagnosis and "treatment" of ME. It is not the mind which fails but the body.

Linda Kerr, convener, edmesh, EdinburghThreats not acts of religious man

THOSE responsible for the terror campaign against prominent Catholics are demented and clearly do not have a religious bone in their body.

If they did, they would know that every human life is sacred and that every human being ought to be respected no matter their colour or creed.

Martin Conroy, Oldhamstocks, East Lothian

Economy is too reliant on tourism

SCOTTISH Labour finance spokesman Andy Kerr is wrong to say that Edinburgh and the Lothians are an "economic powerhouse" (News, April 20).

While the local economy can and should play a key role in Scotland's economic recovery, it is too reliant on tourism and the service sector.

There is little industrial or manufacturing base and the farming community throughout the region is under the cosh from the supermarkets' control of prices. With a more mixed economy we won't suffer as much if one area of business is faring badly.

That's why I call for the creation of affordable, sustainable social housing. This would reduce housing benefit payments and create jobs but would also give people greater security than living in temporary accommodation.

Having a permanent home allows people to plan ahead and increase their confidence in their future. With a confident and forward looking population we can help make the Lothians and Scotland a better place to live.

Ken O'Neill, Independent candidate for Lothian