Readers' Best Comments

The success – or not – of city overlords, the case of the vanishing council tax and road changes exercised your minds

It's halfway through the five-year term of the Lib Dem/SNP coalition at the city council and the News looked at how the troops led by Councillors Jenny Dawe and Steve Cardownie had done. Some readers thought we looked too kindly on them.

Are we discussing Edinburgh here? This isn't the city I'm experiencing. A council of incompetents and half-wits who can't manage a bun fight, let alone major projects in a capital city! When do we vote again?

Grumpy of Grassmarket

Voted SNP got Liberal policies. The SNP are nothing more than Liberal Lapdogs, Awesome Dawes says jump and The Cheerleader asks how high.

Rugal

A majority party of any hue is preferable to the shambolic coalition we have presiding over the city at the moment. The last two years have been characterised by a collective failure to seize the initiative. The merry dance between the SNP and Lib Dems has ensured that nothing gets decided until it's an imminent disaster, and the leading councillors of the former Labour administration appear to have taken a vow of silence.

Kilmartin

Proportional representation was the worst thing that happened to Edinburgh. You have the Lib Dems to blame for that. This is why the City is in the mess it is in. The half yearly report does not reflect the true nature of what is happening in the City, nor the total loathing the majority of people have for this coalition administration.

Spock

The new coalition has ended years of complacent Labour rule and started to balance the budget and rebuild the city's reserves.

Doh

An error saw the council tax of thousands of Edinburgh residents being collected early, leaving their bank accounts in a sorry state. Let's have an opinion poll

NEVER give a City Council access to your account through Direct Debit, you cannot trust them!

American Bob

And this is why I WILL NOT pay my council tax by direct debit. The council send me 2 "final demands" a year, one in April and again in January stating that payments are overdue (THEY ARE NOT!) just to scare me into paying by direct debit.

Me here

I pay by direct debit with no problems

Sahsa

The cost of replacing Seafield roundabout at Portobello hit 3.5 million after council chiefs lost a dispute with contractors. This drove some of you round the bend

Is anyone surprised the Lib Dems and their officials cannot do things efficiently? They should just leave things like this alone, roundabouts are a greener solution anyway. More traffic lights slow traffic down and are hardly going to do anything for air quality, traffic flow, journey times, etc.

David, Edinburgh

The replacement of the roundabout was totally unnecessary in the first place – just like the Milton Road one! But the Council will point to these "improvements" as being safer, whereas the real emphasis should be on education and training of motorists/cyclists and other road users to improve safety. There is no such thing as an unsafe road – just unsafe drivers and cyclists!

Rod the Mod

Cannae fix a roundabout on time and under budget but expect us to believe all will be well with the tram line!

Old Cartha Boy