SIR, – I refer to your report (September 3) that Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham intends to meet with groups of MSPs to talk about how to rescue her draft Crofting Reform Bill.
It appears, from her radio interview that morning, that she will listen only to what she considers to be “constructive” comments.
That is a bit rich, given that her own proposals have been condemned widely as being destructive of crofting and of relationships within crofting communities.
The deadline for responses to her consultation paper was August 12. The minister refused repeated requests to extend it. The next stage must be for the Future of Crofting team to publish the responses and to issue its report for all to read (including MSPs).
I have been told by a member of the team that it will take several more weeks to do this.
It is improper for the minister to act in this way, and in particular to pick and choose whom she will condescend to talk to, before that has been done.
Michael Otter,
Smithy House,
Oldshoremore,
Kinlochbervie.
SIR, – It was amusing, if not pathetic, to read (the Press and Journal, September 2) that a plea against the yet to be detailed Sir Ian Wood proposals for Aberdeen’s Union Terrace Gardens is being made by the proponents of the Peacock Visual Arts scheme for the gardens.
The Peacock scheme, by its introduction of alien architectural forms and destruction of many mature trees, is as damaging to the ambiance of central Aberdeen as could be, and it is a scandal that it was rushed through in the way it was.
That the gardens need attention is not denied, but this must not include destruction of our inheritance in the loss of this historic part of the planned townscape of Aberdeen.
Raising the gardens to street level would provide us with a windswept nowhere with the loss of the trees and changes of levels which give such a satisfactory setting for the almost mediaeval appearance of the rear of Belmont Street and the grand facades of Union Terrace – our own Princes Street Gardens.
One sunny day in May, I lost count at over 150 of the number of people enjoying the gardens, playing with their children and eating their lunch.
I can’t see that happening on a level site, punctuated by rose beds and other vulgar ephemera.
There is scope, and time, for a far more satisfactory outcome to this matter to be discussed in detail before any final decision which will be regretted is made.
Norman G. Marr,
63 Devonshire Road,
Aberdeen.
SIR, – It is inconsistent of NFU Scotland policy director Scott Walker to argue (the Press and Journal, September 4) for the scrapping of the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board (SAWB) on the basis that its retention is at odds with every other sector of industry.
NFUS has argued for decades, and, regrettably, has won its case, that farming support should not be subject to either upper limits or means testing, a situation at odds with the circumstances under which all others requiring public support must survive.
It is this catastrophic anomaly that more urgently requires attention.
Tom Gray,
West Park,
Braco,
Perthshire.
SIR, – On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Germany’s invasion of Poland, which led to World War II, I have been shocked at how little has been said or written on this matter in the media.
In 1939, Britain and France went to war to protect Poland, which they singularly failed to do.
Although I was only 11 at that time, living in Old Aberdeen with my father (my Polish mother having died in May of that year), I remember my horror at hearing of the destruction of our previous Polish home by the Germans. Did Poland collapse? No. Ultimately, of course, it had to. However, there were still remnants of fighting units up to the spring of 1940. Thereafter, the home army went underground.
Had the Soviet Union not invaded Poland in 1939, history might well have been different. This event also affected me personally. My Polish grandmother, the Countess Teresa Choloniewska, aged 57, was taken by the Russians from her home in Lithuania and transported to a labour camp in Outer Mongolia. She died there of cold and starvation.
Millions of Poles died in a similar way at the hands of the Russians. Will there ever be an apology for that? I think not.
Despite their patriotism and fortitude, their fighting on behalf of Britain and America, Polish service units were barred from marching in the victory parade through London at the end of the war. The betrayal of Poland was complete.
Barbara Niven,
Huntly Mews,
Aboyne.
SIR, – Having attended the accident and emergency department at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, I suggest that members of the licensing board and those applying for a licence to sell alcohol should spend a month serving through the night at this hospital department so that they can experience, first-hand, the effects that irresponsible supply and consumption of alcohol has on personal behaviour.
Drink reduces many to a state of depravity at the expense of the safety and security of law-abiding citizens, and especially that indispensable band of medics of various levels, labouring patiently while faced with unacceptable risk, slander and general mayhem.
Maybe acquiring firsthand experience and being at the receiving end of alcohol-induced chaos would engender far more wisdom in the issuing and relaxation of licences to deal in these potent liquids.
Bill Sutherland,
9 Abbots Place,
Kincorth, Aberdeen.